Fort Worth floats historic designation for TCC’s TXU property
The city of Fort Worth is asking Tarrant County College to consider a historic designation for the shuttered 113-year-old TXU North Main Power Plant to protect the building from demolition.
After TCC confirmed in mid-October the 8-acre property was for sale, the nonprofit preservation organization Historic Fort Worth asked Mayor Mattie Parker and members of the Fort Worth City Council to nominate the plant as a city of Fort Worth Historic and Cultural Landmark and “work toward a nomination for the National Register of Historic Places.”
Historic Fort Worth officials said the designations would position the future property owner for substantial financial incentives.
“Historic designation would help to offset the restoration expenses for the power plant, as it adds economic incentives for the restoration of this iconic resource,” Alyssa Banta, Historic Fort Worth’s chair, and Jerre Tracy, the organization’s executive director, said in the letter to City Council members.
Assistant City Manager Dana Burghdoff told the Fort Worth Report that she invited TCC Chancellor Elva LeBlanc to meet and discuss historic designation.
“The local historic designation would allow the building basically to be gutted,” Burghdoff said. “We would just require the historic facade be preserved. It would allow quite a lot of work to be done.”
LeBlanc hasn’t yet confirmed a meeting, Burghdoff said.
Council member Carlos Flores, whose District 2 includes the power plant, said he has reached out to a couple of TCC trustees.
“We’re trying to gauge their level of interest,” he said. “What we’ve heard back is they would like to have further discussions, some presentation of materials to get them more information.”
Historic designations require the support of the City Council. While the city can move forward without a property owner’s agreement, a super-majority vote is required, Burghdoff said.
The owner’s participation is critical, city officials said.
Flores said the city wants to be respectful of TCC and gain college officials’ support.
“We don’t want to get ahead of their board or impede any bid that they may be entertaining,” he said. “We’re taking it step by step.”
He stressed “it’s very important to note how critical it is to try to save this building. It’s in a very prominent spot. What happens to the power plant could affect the surrounding properties.”
Flores also said one option would be for TCC to maintain the status quo, sell the property and let the city step in at that point.
Tracy said the city’s immediate outreach “is enormous progress.”
“This could be a good day for the power plant, and a good day for Fort Worth,” she said.
In a statement, TCC spokesperson Reginald Gates did not directly say whether they were interested in meeting with the city at this point to discuss historic designation.
“Developers have the unique opportunity to designate the TXU building as historic and open doors to state and federal grants, tax credits and infrastructure funding — significantly increasing its redevelopment value,” Gates said.
Gates listed a number of reasons for TCC’s decision to market the property now. They include:
- The ability to invest the sale proceeds in educating students.
- Population growth created more demand for real estate.
- Financial incentives available to developers.
- Serving as a catalyst for the Panther Island waterfront district.
- Availability of public-private partnerships.
- Prospect of returning the property to the tax roll.
- Eliminating TCC’s costs of maintaining the property.
The college acquired the North Main site more than 20 years ago when it bought land for its Trinity River Campus East Center for Health Care Professionals at 245 E. Belknap St.
The college, which envisioned connecting the downtown campus to the power plant site across the river, spent years exploring potential uses, but had not publicly indicated any movement in recent years.
The property anchors the south end of Panther Island — a proposed redevelopment of hundreds of Northside acres held by the Tarrant Regional Water District, Tarrant County, city of Fort Worth, Tarrant County College and several property owners — and is viewed as a linchpin for development.
The college will open bids Nov. 20.
“We would ideally want to see a designation prior to the sale of the property,” Burghdoff said. “We would want to consult with the college district prior to the sale.”
There are three choices of historic designation:
- Highly Significant Endangered is the highest level of protection and provides a 15-year property value freeze for city taxes. This would be the city staff’s recommendation, Burghdoff said.
- Historic and Cultural Landmark provides a 10-year value freeze for paying city property taxes.
- Demolition Delay only allows the city’s Historical and Cultural and Landmarks Commission to delay demolition for up to 180 days to pursue other choices.
All three would require approval by the Landmarks Commission and City Council.
The state and federal governments also provide programs that allow up to 45% in tax credits for eligible rehab expenses on historic properties.
Tracy said historic protection will gain more traction with developers as they understand its benefits.
“I think we’re going to get more and more comfortable in talking about historic designation, because historic designation makes us who we are,” she said.
Burghdoff said it’s her understanding that TCC has concerns about the former power plant’s structure following a building evaluation.
“My understanding is the building can be rehabilitated,” she said. “The roof and interior would need to be replaced or redone.”
Scott Nishimura is a senior editor for the Documenters program at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.
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