Fort Worth football field possibly up for sale, along with 17 other school properties
Fort Worth school leaders are considering a plan to sell 18 underused school-owned properties — including the iconic, 80-year-old Farrington Field — and build a new administration building and potentially two football stadiums.
The sale could generate at least $60 million and lead to the redevelopment and re-purposing of 18,500-seat Farrington Field, which is among the biggest high school stadiums in the state, Superintendent Kent P. Scribner said.
“We took a very deliberate and strategic look ... and identified our underused and inefficient district facilities,” said Scribner.
The Fort Worth office of the Chicago-based JLL real estate company has been working on a strategic real estate plan for the past year, Scribner said.
He said the district wants to “make sure we do this in a thoughtful and careful way and not do anything hastily.”
School officials hope to get feedback on the real estate plan, which also calls for selling the district’s administration office at 100 N. University Drive and building a smaller replacement that includes a learning center potentially near where the Billingsley Field House is located. Two schools, the Boulevard Heights Transition Center and Metro Opportunity, also could be sold.
They say Farrington Field is too big and needs $20 million in repairs — for new turf, ADA requirements, HVAC repairs, locker rooms and more — and the Billingsley Field House is near the end of its lifespan and would cost about $10 million to repair.
And while the district has long worked to fix aging schools, leaders say it’s not cost efficient to do the same with the stadium and field house.
“We are clear on the significance of this stadium,” said Jacinto “Cinto” Ramos Jr., the school board president whose district includes Farrington Field. “I know we have an older facility that we’ve poured a lot of money into trying to keep it as relevant as possible.”
“We are going to do right for children in 2019 and moving forward.”
School officials say events will still be held at Farrington Field — from middle school track meets to high school football games — for the next 18 months to two years if the plan is approved.
After that, if the property is sold, events would be shifted to Clark Stadium, Scarborough-Handley Field and new stadiums that would be built on the north and west sides of the district. There would no longer be a central stadium.
All this comes as the Fort Worth school board is considering some school boundary changes to address crowding, equity and demographic shifts.
Farrington Field
Some parts of Farrington Field such as the Farrington frieze and columns, as well as the oak trees lining University Drive and Lancaster Avenue, would have some protections and be required to be preserved.
But the bulk of it could be torn down to make way for new development in a highly desirable part of town, potentially creating a mixed-use technology and business center.
Officials also said a plaza there would honor Farrington Field architect Preston Geren, former Physical Education director E.S. Farrington and former athletics administrator Jack Billingsley.
“It’s a 1939 stadium trying to serve 2019 needs,” said Michael Bennett, the architect who, along with his firm, Bennett Benner Partners, has been working on this plan.
Administrative building
Scribner said the 140,000-square-foot administration building on University, across the street from Greenwood Cemetery, is inefficient and has a lack of adequate parking. He wants to shrink the building to about half its size, and add a learning center to it, and locate it in the Farrington Field complex.
“What we have is a substandard central administration office,” he said. “We need to do something.”
This new proposed facility will help the district cut operating costs by at least 30%, officials said.
School officials say they will be doing presentations and talking about this proposal at parent meetings and school board meetings.
Public comment is welcome, they say.
The next Fort Worth school board meeting is Dec. 10.
Anyone who wants to ask questions or give feedback about the proposal online can use the “Let’s Talk” feature on the school district website.
Properties for sale
Scribner said there’s no time frame for putting the school-owned buildings on the market. The under-used buildings that could soon be offered for sale:
▪ The school district’s main administration building, 100 N. University Dr.
▪ An administration warehouse, 2901 Shotts St.
▪ Administration security parking lot, 3000 Shotts St.
▪ Service center and maintenance building and service center parking lot, 2808 Tillar St.
▪ CIP and technology building, lot and maintenance additional office and lot, 2801 Cullen St.
▪ Metro Opportunity High School building, 2720 Cullen St.
▪ Professional Development Center, a former department store, 3150 McCart Ave.
▪ Service center food service facility, 509/601 E. Northside Dr.
▪ Service center facility, 1300 Rockwood Lane.
▪ Student placement center, 999 N. University Dr.
▪ Surplus land at northwest corner of Wichita and Interstate 20.
▪ Farrington Athletic Complex, 1501 S. University Dr.
▪ Billingsley Field House, 1400 Foch St.
▪ The vacant Magnolia Building, 1066 W. Magnolia Ave.
▪ Undeveloped land south of the Lowery Road Elementary School, 840 Cooks Lane.
▪ Boulevard Heights Transition Center, including the original Arlington Heights High School buiilding, 5100 El Campo Ave.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 10:12 AM.
