When the Fort Worth Now task force was presented with issues and opportunities in the city, one deficit was glaring, co-chair John Goff said: The city was the largest in the country without a Tier 1 research institution.
The task force, created by former Mayor Betsy Price to support the city’s economy as it grappled with the impacts of the pandemic, got to work. It addressed immediate pandemic-related business issues as well as looked at the bigger, more challenging picture.
“The more difficult part was, how do we take Fort Worth and make it stronger economically as we exit the pandemic?” Goff said.
Five years later, Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing large cities in the nation. Economic development and higher education are closely linked as the area looks to attract both students and businesses, according to a group of college leaders featured on a Fort Worth Report panel.
The roots of the current effort can be traced to when Goff connected with Texas A&M School of Law Dean Robert Ahdieh. Ahdieh showed Goff the law school’s downtown campus, including a view from the roof.
Goff saw big opportunity in Texas A&M’s room to expand.
“We got up on top, and I looked down at this land, and I said, ‘This is amazing. It’s just sitting here ripe for development of a major campus,’” Goff said.
John Goff, Crescent Real Estate founder and chairman, speaks during a Fort Worth Report Candid Conversation event on Aug. 19, 2025, at Tarleton State Fort Worth. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)
A&M is just one of seven area institutions that are growing. It is planning for five new buildings in downtown Fort Worth, the first of which will be the Law and Education Building expected to open in 2026.
Farther out from the city’s center, Tarleton State Fort Worth recently opened the second building on its southwest Fort Worth campus.
Texas Christian University plans to increase its student body by 5,000 as part of its 10-year strategic plan. It is also building developments along Berry Street that will house students and host retail shops.
The University of Texas at Arlington broke ground in April for UTA West, a new campus in the Walsh development, with a planned opening in 2028.
UTA President Jennifer Cowley said the expansion of her Tier 1 research university came from a desire to draw businesses to the area and prevent an educational desert.
“We’re the closest comprehensive research university to that part of our region,” Cowley said. “It made perfect sense for us to say, ‘OK, we’re thinking not just about what the needs are today, but what they need to be 30 years from now.’”
UTA formed a strong relationship with the aerospace corporation Lockheed Martin, the largest employer in the county. Kenneth Ross, director of communications and public affairs for Lockheed Martin, said the company provides opportunity not just for students, but the students also constitute a talent pipeline for the company.
“Education is the lifeblood for everything we do,” Ross said. “I talk a lot about engineering, but it’s finance, it’s HR, it’s material management. You name it, across the board, we have those needs all the way down to the technical skills for our artisans.”
Kenneth Ross, second from right, laughs as panelists banter during a Candid Conversation panel on Aug. 19, 2025, at Tarleton State Fort Worth’s campus. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)
Goff highlighted the movement of the game company ProbablyMonsters to Fort Worth. He said its migration came from the company’s need for graduates.
“Fort Worth, in a million years, would have never attracted a game design company, ever, had it not been for just a chance meeting in my office of the CEO of the company and someone at A&M who was going to start a visualization program here in the city,” he said.
As higher education in the area spurs economic development, institutions also face challenges.
The Trump administration has made cuts to federal funding for research and development. Funding research — or lack thereoff — has long-lasting effects, Cowley said.
“We know the federal budget is tight, but this question of whether or not we’re going to invest in R&D in robust ways has a direct impact on the innovations that we’re going to see for generations to come,” she said.
The funding decrease will not last forever, Ahdieh anticipates. He expects the negative impact of reduced research on the country’s economy will mean things eventually head back in the other direction.
“The economic benefits of this federal-higher ed partnership are so substantial that this has to be a pendulum,” he said.
The state is also experiencing brain drain when talented Texas high school graduates seek postsecondary education out of state.
Universities nationwide are grappling with a decrease in graduating seniors. Tarleton State University President James Hurley said schools in nearby states are responding by recruiting from Texas, and they are taking the best.
“They’re coming for our top 10% students,” he said.
From left: James Hurley, Tarleton State University president; Robert Ahdieh, Texas A&M-Fort Worth chief operating officer and law school dean; and Jennifer Cowley, University of Texas at Arlington president, banter during a Candid Conversation event on Aug. 19, 2025, at Tarleton State Fort Worth’s campus. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)
Students need a reason to stay, and universities can help by forming partnerships with employers.
“It’s forcing universities, rightly so, to be more smart and thoughtful and systematic about, what are the programs that we’re offering?” said Ahdieh, who is also chief operating officer for Texas A&M-Fort Worth. “How are we collaborating with industry?”
This is not an issue that is going away in the future as the city continues to grow, Hurley said.
Fort Worth officially became the 11th-largest city in the country in May 2025.
“That growth isn’t going to stop,” Hurley said. “It takes all of us working in unison to ensure that our young people and students alike have opportunities right here, so they do not leave the state of Texas.”
McKinnon Rice is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
Disclosure: All seven higher education institutions in Tarrant County and John Goff have been financial supporters of the Fort Worth Report.
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