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City Profile

Properties is proposing a two-phased redevelopment that will result in a total of at least $70 million worth of
investment: approximately 292 multifamily units, 20 townhomes, and 28 live-work units, with at least 20% of the
total number of units being affordable, a cultural square, parks, and other public spaces. In April 2022, the City
entered into multiple definitive agreements with Hoque Global Development for the project. Currently, the
developers are in the pre-development stage with Development Services and seek to close on the properties by
December 14, 2022. The developer expects to break ground on Phase I by April of 2023.

The City’s Fort Worth Local Development Corporation (FWLDC) launched the Fort Worth Main Street Pilot
Program to build the capacity for place-based community organizations to revitalize historic, commercial corridors
as economic and community vitality hubs. The program is targeted at historic business corridors in the City’s
Neighborhood Empowerment Zones, Urban Villages, and Revitalization Target Areas. In August 2022, the City
announced the two awardees of the pilot program: Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for a Northside
District and the Southeast Fort Worth, Inc. for a Polytechnic District. Each entity and associated community will
receive $50,000 worth of revitalization training and develop a transformation strategy and work plan with Main
Street America’s UrbanMain and receive $270,000 worth of grants for both operational support and new program
and project implementation. With success, the City hopes to roll out this framework across the City to other
historic commercial districts and potentially become the first city in Texas and only one in five in the nation with
a Main Street City-Coordinating Program.

On October 2021, the City Council approved an allocation of up to $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act
Funds to enter into a contract with CDFI Friendly America, LLC to bring financing from one or more community
development financial institutions (“CDFIs”) to the City. The contract would engage the consultant to provide
consulting services in assessing the potential roles of CDFI financing in the community, organizing potential CDFI
Friendly strategies, developing an actionable CDFI Friendly business plan, and providing the City with consultative
capacity-building support for the implementation of that business plan in collaboration with the Economic
Development Department and the Department of Diversity and Inclusion. Since its kickoff on January 26, 2022,
CDFI Friendly Fort Worth has closed on 99 loans for $6.25 million.

In addition to the growth in development and revitalization projects, the City launched a messaging campaign and
economic development framework to prioritize equity, vitality, and quality of place along Fort Worth’s
neighborhood business corridors, as many of them serve as the heart of the community. This framework and
messaging campaign continues to be built out to provide a website and materials to inform the community,
businesses, developers, and partners of the City’s investment priorities—to grow and attract more investment
and opportunity to reach the full potential of each area. As a part of this effort, the City’s Revitalization Target
Areas were adopted to communicate its priority areas for investment, partnership, and staff focus.

Entrepreneurship and innovation have become focal points for the department in recent years as well. On
September 15, 2022, TechStars officially launched the first cohort of the Accelerator. The program’s partners
chose ten high-growth, early-stage startups to support and fund over the next three years. The companies were
chosen from a pool of hundreds of applicants worldwide. For the next several months, owners, innovators, and
representatives of these startups will call Fort Worth home, as team members from HSC, Techstars, and Goff
Capital shepherd their ideas from concept to game-changing tech. The accelerator is focused on supporting
companies building new technologies, treatments, and therapies in the physical health space in areas such as
rehabilitation, physical therapy, performance, and exercise. The selected startups will participate in an intensive,
13-week program, and receive hands-on mentorship, curated entrepreneurial content and programming, up to
$120,000 in funding, and access to a vast network of mentors, investors, alumni, and influential corporate
executives. These efforts will culminate on December 8, 2022 during Demo Day, when leaders of the startups will
present their work.

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