New UT Arlington campus breaks ground, promises to transform west Fort Worth
The birth of far west Fort Worth’s newest “economic powerhouse” was consecrated Thursday morning in a white canopy tent wedged between the intersection of Interstates 20 and 30.
It was blustery and overcast. The freeways whirred incessantly. The tent, a smaller adjacent canopy, and a porta-potty trailer nearby were the only structures within half a mile.
The top halves of cars and semi trucks zipping past blotted out the horizon to the north and west. A subtle rise of trees overlooked the tent from the south. A short drive east leads to an apartment complex and a Cook Children’s urgent care facility.
Inside the tent, as the wind rippled the tarp, businesspeople, higher education leaders and dignitaries gathered to commemorate the ceremonial groundbreaking of the latest addition to the landscape — the University of Texas at Arlington’s west campus.
“This is the place of the future, and we need to be one of the grounding seeds to help grow this part of our region,” UTA president Jennifer Cowley told the crowd.
“It’s the right idea at the right time, right place,” she went on. “We’re standing literally at the border of one of the fastest growing cities and one of the fastest growing counties in the country.”
UTA first unveiled plans to construct a satellite campus at the far western edge of Fort Worth city limits in August. The complex expects to service at least 10,000 students.
News of the proposed $150 million campus has generated no shortage of fanfare. UT bigwigs raved about the expansion of one of North Texas’ most important institutions of public education. Businesses and developers hailed the economic activity the new campus could generate. Local government leaders in Tarrant and Parker counties celebrated both.
Some homeowners in nearby subdivisions, meanwhile, have bristled at the burst of people, cars and bustle UTA West might unleash.
Growth in west Fort Worth
UTA’s venture west follows the same pattern of growth it promises to accelerate.
Fort Worth’s population boom and sprawly development style fueled a surge in homebuilding around its outskirts. Parker County’s population has grown at an annual average rate of 4.7% between 2020 and 2024.
Well-to-do ranchers out west, sensing the tides, began selling off their land to developers who’ve repurposed seas of pasture into subdivisions.
Over the past two decades, Fort Worth oilman Howard Walsh and his successors have transformed the family’s 7,200-acre ranch into a “master-planned” community just across the freeway from the budding campus. “Walsh,” the namesake development, promises a self-contained neighborhood of homes, stores, and schools capable of sustaining 50,000 residents upon completion. (UTA purchased the 51-acre site of its new campus from the Walsh family in January 2025, according to a UTA spokesperson; he didn’t specify the purchase price.)
Dallas-based developer PMB Capital Investments plans to replace Veale Ranch, a 3,800-acre expanse of farm land south of Interstate 20, with homes and stores. The firm expects to house at least 30,000 residents at full buildout.
Businesses have followed.
Worthington Bank, a Fort Worth financial services provider, announced in September that it planned to relocate its headquarters to Walsh.
A Dallas data center builder plans to build a data storage center in the northeastern corner of Veale Ranch.
Much of the mutual excitement between business leaders and UTA officials is the underlying belief that good schools and vibrant economies progress hand in hand, feeding one another.
“The primary mission of the Walsh family is to create a great, world-class, urban development,” Walsh Companies CEO Ryan Dickerson said during the groundbreaking ceremony. “UTA is now and in the future, a significant part of that story.”
Even Walsh’s competitors expect to benefit.
“The significance of their investment and the size of what they’ll bring, just from a commercial real estate development standpoint, will drive additional traffic and needs for retail and housing and other ancillary uses,” Taylor Baird, a founding partner of PMB Capital Investments, told the Star-Telegram in August.
Concerns about traffic, lifestyle in west Fort Worth
Not all are thrilled.
“It’s a slap in the face to current residents,” one resident of Willow Park, a small city just west of the campus-in-waiting, commented in a community Facebook group shortly after its announcement. “If we wanted to live in a big city we would have moved to one. People move west to LEAVE the city and high traffic — now we’re being forced to convert to it.”
“Hate the thought of even MORE traffic out this way,” another said more bluntly.
The Texas Department of Transportation is spending $540 million to widen and revamp stretches of I-20 and I-30 linking Fort Worth and Weatherford — a yearslong project that promises eased traffic, if not the preservation of remaining countryside.
Government officials say they’re working to reconcile the concerns of their constituents with the growth flooding their way.
“This new development strengthens our commitment to academic excellence while bolstering our local economy, creating new opportunities for existing businesses and attracting resources that will benefit our residents,” Nick Stanley, the mayor of Aledo, wrote in a statement. “I look forward to working with local leaders to ensure that this growth is well-planned and serves the community in a way that enhances our quality of life and keeps Aledo a great place to live, work and learn.”
Parker County Commissioner Mike Hale also backs the campus, excited by the business it could stimulate and the educational opportunities it could provide. He was one of the political leaders handed a gilded shovel during the groundbreaking’s ceremonial dirt scoop.
But he’s conscious of the tradeoffs.
“So many of these big ranches are starting to cut loose, and the development of them, you know, is pretty much inevitable,” he told the Star-Telegram after the event.
He suspects chunks of eastern Parker County will begin to resemble fleshed-out suburbs like Frisco in the coming decades.
“I would love it if there were wealthy individuals that held on to these big ranches and put them in trusts and they never got developed,” he said. “But that’s not very realistic.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 3:18 PM.
