Fort Worth’s Panther Island dream becomes more real with $403 million in federal funding » Dallas Innovates

The Panther Island project, also known as Central City, is located in an industrial area north of downtown Fort Worth. The project will create a new urban neighborhood on an island combining mixed-use neighborhoods with a network of canals and a lake to control flooding. [Rendering: Courtesy of Trinity River Vision Authority ]

Fort Worth’s Panther Island is not yet an island. But plans announced Wednesday by the United States The Army Corps of Engineers could finally bring it to life. The Corps said it would spending $403 million on the final design and construction of a 1.5-mile flood control bypass canal, which will redirect part of the Trinity River near downtown Fort Worth.

The canal will transform 800 acres of land into Panther Island, which the city hopes will become a massive residential and mixed-use entertainment and recreation district, connecting downtown Fort Worth to the city’s cultural district and Stockyards. .

The Panther Island project has been underway for nearly two decades. (You can read our 2017 story — one of our most-read stories to date — to see where plans stood five years ago.) But the project has always depended on the bypass channel — the centerpiece of the Trinity River Vision/Central City Flood Control Project.

The floodway that will be built by the Army Corps of Engineers will create Panther Island. [Image: Panther Island/Central City Flood Project]

“An incredible moment in Fort Worth history”

“This is a great day for Fort Worth,” Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), Republican leader of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “As a leader in flood control, I thank the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for understanding this responsibility and meeting this need for Fort Worth. Today, Fort Worth will be safer and stronger.

“This is the departure moment that we have been looking forward to,” added Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker. “We had confidence in the Corps of Engineers and our federal representatives. This funding announcement provides the certainty that will make our community safer and the green light for new investments in the region. This is an incredible moment in the history of Fort Worth.

“The Trinity River Flood Control Project is a critical piece of infrastructure that will provide necessary flood protection and growth opportunities in Fort Worth,” added Congressman Marc Veasey. “I’m thrilled to have been part of the bipartisan team that brought this goal line to fruition.

Aerial rendering of Panther Island construction. [Image: Panther Island/Central City Flood Project]

NCTCOG team funded three bridges on Panther Island

Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, is perhaps one of the happiest recipients of news from the Corps of Engineers. He was the leader of the team that financed the construction of three Panther Island bridges, the last of which finally opened in October after long delays.

“It relieves me that we didn’t build our bridges in vain,” Morris told the Fort Worth Report. “That decision seems to have paid off, and I think Panther Island is a game-changer for the city.”

The FWR notes that the total cost of Panther Island is estimated to be around $1.16 billion, with the Tarrant Regional Water District, the City of Fort Worth, the Texas Department of Transportation and an area of planned tax increase funding. to cover the rest of the financing. A $250 million bond package passed in 2018 will also help fund the island’s flood control and drainage operations.

What’s next and what’s to come

When the canal is complete, possibly by 2025, according to a Trinity River Vision Authority timeline, it will be up to the private sector to invest in and fully construct Panther Island.

As the FWR article notes, the University of North Texas conducted an economic impact study in 2014 that projected that more than 29,600 full-time workers could be employed on Panther Island, generating more than 3.7 billion dollars of annual economic activity. The island could potentially house 10,000 homes and 3 million square feet of commercial space.

The project is just part of a larger reimagining of what the Trinity River could be as it meanders through Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas. Could it become “the nucleus of a linear neighborhood that merges all of the area’s greatest assets into one ‘magnetic core,’ as we wrote in 2017?

Essentially, it’s all a case of “If you build it, it will come.” Now that the Corps of Engineers is building the canal, Panther Island and a big new chapter for Fort Worth could finally arrive.