Yesterday Fort Worth's Miss Shiloh asked me if I'd heard anything of late about that which is usually referred to as Fort Worth's Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle.
I told Miss Shiloh that til that very day, as in yesterday, Friday, August 4, 2023, it had been a while since I had heard or read anything about Fort Worth's embarrassing Boondoggle.
So, yesterday Fort Worth's sad excuse for a newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had a banner headline on the front page announcing that
The vision for Fort Worth’s Panther Island is changing. Here’s what a new report says.
Reading this article it quickly became apparent it was a stereotypical Star-Telegram example of bad journalism, rendered more as mindless propaganda, than the seeking of actual facts.
Let's go through this article and see what we think...
The vision for Fort Worth’s future Panther Island development is evolving, based on a consultant firm’s new report that describes the massive project as a “once-in-a-generation city-building opportunity.”
The $1.1 billion public investment to mitigate Trinity River flooding by building new channels will open up more than 5 miles of shoreline and 200 acres for development just north of downtown. As originally conceived, Panther Island’s development would be focused on dense residential buildings with some commercial.
That should be reconsidered, the consultants find, as Fort Worth has seen tremendous growth, market changes and shifts in priorities for the city center since the project’s germination decades ago.
A massive project? Once in a generation city building opportunity? This Boondoggle has already been Boondoggling along for one generation, as in over two decades. Originally sold as a vitally needed flood control and economic development, where there had been no flooding for over half a century due to flood control levees already installed.
Opening up more that 5 miles of shoreline? Shoreline? Are we referring to a riverbank as shoreline? Or is a little lake back in the vision? With that little lake providing the over 5 miles of imaginary shoreline on the imaginary island?
During the course of the Boondoggle's Boondoggling how many consulting firms have been consulted, generating how many reports, costing how much money?
$1.1 billion public investment? To mitigate Trinity River flooding where it has not flooded since the 1950s? Investment? By the public? I have long opined if this was an actual vitally needed flood control and economic developments scheme why has it not been funded in the way towns wearing their big city pants, get things done? Instead, Fort Worth has been panhandling for federal money for years. And the Fort Worth public has never voted on this Boondoggle, in the manner which happens in a more functional town.
Instead of selling the public on a bond issue to finance this supposed vitally needed flood control economic development scheme, the job of being the Executive Director of the project was given to a local congresswoman's unqualified son, to motivate the mother to seek federal funding.
Eventually some federal funding was approved, part of Biden's infrastructure bill, which Congresswoman, Kay Granger voted no on. Kay's son, J.D. Granger's employment with the Boondoggle did not last long after it became apparent J.D.'s mother was of no help.
Continuing on from the article...
“Fort Worth is growing rapidly, with population surging 24% between 2010 and 2020, and is now the fastest growing large city in the U.S.,” the report says. “Panther Island is crucial to the region’s economic development. The scale and location can help capture and fuel long-term residential and employment growth.”
Fort Worth is the fastest growing city in the U.S.? By what metric one can not help but wonder. In the above photo, from the Star-Telegram article, you are looking at Panther Island, the imaginary island which currently is not surrounded by water, but one day may be, if a cement lined ditch is ever dug, creating a diversion channel to go under three little bridges currently bridging over dry land.
Panther Island is crucial to the region's economic development? Really? If so why has this project limped along for decades? Look at that skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. To you does that look like the skyline of the fastest growing city in America?
I think I will just post the rest of this article and let you ferret out the absurdity on your own...
In January, the city of Fort Worth hired the consulting firm, HR&A Advisors, to serve as project manager and help coordinate the vision for future land use and economic development of Panther Island. The firm’s new report stresses the need for a unified development strategy for the more than 500 acres of public and privately owned land, as well as the need to avoid displacing surrounding communities such as the historic North Side.
Planners are moving away from the residential-focused original plans and instead envision a district with both residential and a vibrant entertainment hub, outdoor recreation and the potential to attract companies and talent to the city, HR&A’s report said.
Mixed use development usually includes a mix of residential units and anything from office space to restaurants to retail, Andrea Duffie, spokesperson with the city’s economic development department, said Thursday. For the Panther Island project, the intention is to create a “flexible space” where people can “live, work and play,” she said, but what that mixed use development is going to include beyond residential space has yet to be decided.
The district should be pedestrian-friendly and accessible through several different methods of transportation given the mix of large- and small-scale projects that could occur. The report said the district should be connected through “a walkable, interconnected open space network” for this reason.
The consultants say the district should have a recognizable and distinct identity while also complementing the adjacent downtown and connecting seamlessly with surrounding neighborhoods. Panther Island also contains multiple historic sites that could be uniquely redeveloped.
The full realization of development is still years away, but there are already signs of movement in and around the future island.
In July, an Austin-based commercial real estate company purchased 26 acres over nine parcels in an area known as Upstream at Panther Island, with several adjacent to a planned canal or waterfront. The firm, Seco Ventures, is now the single largest capital investor on the site.
Dallas-based Centergy Retail is proposing a residential tower in the Left Bank development off West Seventh Street, on a site that will face the future Trinity River channel.
And the recent news that the Autobahn luxury vehicle dealerships on White Settlement Road intend to relocate to Clearfork would open up two blocks along that corridor to new residential or commercial development within sight of Panther Island.
HR&A’s report released Thursday is the first step in its process. The firm will next explore different funding options for some outstanding infrastructure upgrades in partnership with the city and other district stakeholders.
Although conceived years ago, the project got an official greenlight in January 2022 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received $403 million from the federal government to create the bypass channel connecting two sections of the Trinity River.
“The pieces are really coming together for Panther Island,” Sturns said when HR&A was hired. “Local partners and the business community are making a strong economic development push at the district, but we want to be smart about how we do it.”
HR&A was selected by city partners who have taken a lead on the project, including Tarrant County, Tarrant Regional Water District, Tarrant County College, the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth, Downtown Fort Worth Inc. and Streams and Valleys.
The national firm has offices in Dallas, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Raleigh and Washington D.C. Previous HR&A projects include Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park and other waterfront projects like Washington D.C.’s Anacostia River, the University of Texas research campus, Houston’s Buffalo Bayou and the Ion Innovation District near Rice University.
