“The Bell announcement … that was huge for us,” Fort Worth’s economic development chief says
FORT WORTH, Texas — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
Fort Worth is having an economic development moment.
Projects announced for the city in 2024 represent about $2 billion in capital investment and about 2,500 new jobs, said Robert Sturns, Fort Worth’s director of economic development. Those included a pledged $630 million expansion of the Fort Worth Stockyards and the recently announced nine-figure Bell aircraft parts factory.
Sturns said the deals inked this year included both existing companies that are expanding and newcomers pulled to the attractive demographic trends in Cowtown. It remains the fastest-growing big city in the state and country, alluring to both people and companies. Fort Worth saw roughly $2 billion in economic development deals in 2023 as well.
Dallas Business Journal recently spoke with Sturns about the economic development climate on the west side of the Metroplex and what next year might have in store. This conversation has been edited lightly for grammar, length and clarity.
In an interview last year, you said you thought 2024 might be a bit of a challenge because of economic uncertainty. Were you surprised this year? How did that prediction turn out?
Sturns: That’s always the danger in making predictions. I was actually very surprised that the deal flow was as strong as it was this year. And again, just with all the uncertainty, we really weren’t sure how things were going to play out. But again, we’re coming into the end of 2024 with a lot of major projects, including the Bell expansion. I think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion of new capital investment for 2024. So yeah, I was wrong in that prediction for this year.
Now, there’s a lot of discussion around tariffs and how that’s going to impact some things. I still think there’s probably some uncertainty going into 2025, but I think we’ll have a better sense of how that’s going to play out probably first quarter.
What would you say were some of the biggest deals this year?
Again, I’ll touch base on the Bell announcement. I mean, that was huge for us. It’s one we’ve been working on for quite a while. So it didn’t necessarily come as a surprise but there was just a lot of complexity with that deal. Obviously, it’s the first JETI award [Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act incentives] that the state has given, and so there’s a lot of coordination with the state partners as well.
The other one that was a big deal for us, not a recruitment project, but we did announce the phase two expansion of the Stockyards. Another almost $700 million that’s going into this second portion of the Stockyards. Again, huge driver for Fort Worth.
Those are two very different deals, but if you think about what that long-term impact is going to be on Fort Worth, I think they just kind of speak to the attractiveness of Fort Worth, why companies come here or why our existing companies and developers continue to build and expand here.
Dickies, which is a 100-plus-year-old Fort Worth company, is moving its headquarters to California. I’m curious about what your reaction was to that. Were you surprised?
It’s disappointing. You never want to see a company that has been in your city for over 100 years decide to pack up and leave. Especially without getting an opportunity to really discuss what the options were. So I think it caught all of us by surprise, but obviously Dickies the company had been acquired by VF Corp. a few years ago. So this was a broader corporate decision. So even though they’ve had that presence in Fort Worth for over 100 years, it wasn’t the family-owned company that we’ve all known Dickies to be for quite some time.
I understand that decisions are made on a corporate level and from what I understand this was really more of a financial question for them. They’ve got some brands that are struggling a little bit, and so they’re trying to shore that up. I understand when those decisions are made, but obviously … you just never like to wake up in the morning and see that, see that headline coming out in the paper.
I don’t know that there’s lessons to be learned from it. It wasn’t a situation where, you know, we were hearing rumors or questions about Dickies potentially leaving.
Where do you expect we might see economic development activity going forward next year?
The great thing about Fort Worth, it’s 350 square miles. So there’s a lot of opportunity for development. Hillwood continues to be a major development partner with us at Alliance, and so I don’t see anything impeding growth opportunities in far north Fort Worth.
I continue to look at what’s happening out in west Fort Worth, particularly around Walsh and Veale Ranch. The investment that UTA is making out there in their UTA West campus, I think that’s going to be a huge driver of opportunities for us in the western part of Fort Worth. The fact that you’ve got 11,000-plus acres of land between those two ranches, by themselves really gives us some significant opportunities for some large-scale projects.
Again, I don’t know how good at predictions I am, but If I’m looking at the crystal ball, I’d say far north and west still represents some really strong growth opportunities for us.