District narrows search for 5th location
By Rawly Bransom
editor-in-chief

 Residents of downtown Fort Worth are closer than ever to having a TCC campus within walking distance.
Last August, the TCC Board of Trustees approved a 31 percent tax increase to build a central location near or in downtown Fort Worth.
The campus not only will give TCC an urban campus, but will also help the city of Fort Worth’s plan for a 24\7 downtown.
“One of the factors in the decision to place a campus downtown was a consideration that we do not have mass transit to many of the campuses,” Dr. David Wells, TCC provost, said. “We have buses to South Campus and sometimes NW, but we do not have a mass transit system for the students who live in Arlington for SE or the Hurst area for NE.”
The two leading spots for the new campus are an area known as Trinity Bluffs and some TXU property that has housed a power plant for decades.
Trinity Bluffs is owned by Tom Struhs, who has been acquiring the land for two years and has planned to sell the land to Lincoln Properties for apartments. The property is just north of the Tarrant County Courthouse and combined with a parcel of land owned by Ed Bass would give the campus direct access to downtown Fort Worth
The TXU property is only minutes away from downtown across the Trinity near the site of the Radio Shack and Pier 1 headquarters, now under construction. The site will also face Town Lake, a major area of focus for Fort Worth’s river front revitalization.
Both areas came under consideration after Ed Bass pulled an 11-acre tract of land near the City Center Tower out of consideration. That area would have limited the campus’ growth and forced the district into building a high rise.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the bluffs area is considered the leading proposal since the TXU land would slow the project down because of possible environmental clean-ups.
The Star-Telegram reported that Struhs was contacted toward the end of last year, by civic leaders regarding selling the land to TCC.
Struhs then contacted Bass to make sure he would not be competing against him. Instead, he and Bass would be working together since Bass controls a key piece that gives the proposed campus direct access to Sundance Square.
TCC officials are still negotiating the land and declined to comment on details pertaining to the purchase of land, but according to people involved in discussions, a deal should come soon.
TCC officials did promise that once the land purchase is made, all further discussions involving the new campus would be public.
Either deal would allow TCC to put several buildings totaling 500,000 square feet on 35 acres, including administrative buildings, classrooms and a performance hall.
“The initial plan for the downtown campus was 100,000 square feet for district administrative offices (which would replace the May Owen Center) and 400,000 square feet for academic purposes,” Wells said.
The initial expense would run an estimated $80 million, this outlay coming after the Texas Legislature plans to cut funding to state schools.
“I think it is important for people to know that the cost of the new campus does not come at the expense of expansion of other campuses,” he said.
TCC expects to draw an additional 10,000 undergraduate students to the downtown campus and an additional 5,000 continuing education students.
“The student population will probably not be there right away, but you build for what you expect and plan to grow over time,” Wells said.
As plans stand now, the new campus is slated to open for fall 2006 registration.
“We believe there is a sizable number of people within three to five miles. The campus will allow that population to go to a community college,” Wells said.