Texas A&M-Fort Worth’s Construction Budget Almost Doubled

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The Texas A&M University System News Release image header. Office of Marketing Communications. 979-458-6023BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Thursday almost doubled the construction budget—from $85 million to $150 million—for Phase One of the Texas A&M-Fort Worth urban research campus.

Responding to greater-than-expected demand for space in the Law & Education Building, the Regents authorized approximately 225,000 gross square feet—an estimated nine floors to house programs in law, engineering, business and health sciences, among others.

“There is so much opportunity for the Texas A&M System to serve Fort Worth, Tarrant County and all of North Texas, we had to go bigger and taller in the first building,” said Chancellor John Sharp.

The Law & Education Building is to be the first of a three-building complex built on four city blocks in southeast downtown as a joint effort with the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County to spur business growth and economic development.

The other two buildings will be a public-private sector project built with city-issued bonds secured by lease payments from the Texas A&M System and private sector companies who want to co-locate with university and agency researchers.

The vision is to create a hub of collaboration between key Fort Worth industries and top research, education and workforce training assets of the Texas A&M System.

Texas A&M University’s School of Law, which has doubled its enrollment since 2019 to approximately 1,200 students, will occupy about half of the Law & Education Building. The construction will be financed with the Permanent University Fund and other System monies.

As part of Thursday’s vote, the Regents authorized $15 million of the $150 million construction budget for design and pre-construction services. As early as May, the Board could be asked to give the final authorization for a groundbreaking.

In other action, the Board approved:

  • $35 million for Phase 1 and $75 million for Phase 2 of the construction of a new dock and infrastructure for an ocean-going training and research ship for the Texas A&M Maritime Academy. The larger dock must be built to provide safe mooring of the vessel in Category II hurricanes.
  • A new bachelor’s degree program in journalism at Texas A&M and authorized the university to seek the approval of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
  • Increasing the cost of the Engineering Classroom and Research Building at Texas A&M University at Galveston by $6 million to $50,992,125.
  • Early procurement of machinery and materials for Tarleton State University’s $110 million convocation center to address supply chain delays.
  • A new $15.1 million Nuclear Engineering Education Building that will consolidate research faculty and labs for Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station in College Station.
  • $6.4 million to construct a Propulsion Test Facility at Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Turbomachinery Lab Project in College Station.

About The Texas A&M University System
The Texas A&M University System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a budget of $7.2 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities, a comprehensive health science center, eight state agencies, and the RELLIS Campus, the Texas A&M System educates more than 152,000 students and makes more than 24 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year. System-wide, research and development expenditures exceed $1 billion and help drive the state’s economy.

Contact: Laylan Copelin
Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communications
(979) 458-6425
(512) 289-2782 cell
lcopelin@tamus.edu