A new Fort Worth trade school could soon replace a church on Jacksboro Highway.
South Carolina-based Progress Land Development LLC is proposing a zoning change to build a $5 million campus at 5029 Jacksboro Highway near Skyline Drive.
The zoning change request, filed on July 10, said the developer plans a partial demolition of Northwest Bible Church for the proposed trade school. The site, adjacent to a former funeral home spot, currently has a mix of zoning that includes neighborhood commercial, planned development and one-family residential.
A previous state filing in March described the project as an Arclabs Welding School. The institute, which offers a six-month welding program, already has a Fort Worth campus at 2821 Cullen St.
A 44,650-square-foot building with a metal framed entryway is planned at the church site, according to an April 20 filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The projected date to finish the building is Nov. 30.
The Jacksboro Highway land was appraised at $52,627 when the church owned the property in 2025, according to the Tarrant Appraisal District.
The case is expected to be considered by the Fort Worth Zoning Commission on Aug. 12.
“We just received the application last week, and no staff report is available,” city spokesperson Natalie Foster said in an email.
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/07/19/trade-school-proposed-for-jacksboro-highway-church-site/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=669826&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/07/19/trade-school-proposed-for-jacksboro-highway-church-site/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>