Abandoned TXU power plant at Panther Island attracts dozens of potential buyers
.JPG "The old TXU power plant along the North Main Street bridge on Aug. 26, 2005. The smokestacks have since been demolished.")
Tarrant County College says at least 47 potential buyers have shown interest in the abandoned TXU power plant that the school owns on the north bank of the Trinity River by downtown.
TCC said Thursday it will extend the Nov. 20 deadline for bids to purchase the property. The location along North Main Street is a prime spot on the future Panther Island development.
The college said 47 parties had accessed its invitation-to-bid information regarding the property, which was built in 1912 for Fort Worth Power & Light. The plant with 265-foot smokestacks was steam-driven using river water to generate electricity for neighboring homes, downtown buildings and the Stockyards’ meatpacking operations.
According to the Texas Bid Network website, the appraised value of the property is $9.42 million.
TCC purchased the site in 2004 when it was planning a downtown campus, but the 2008 financial crisis and other factors put plans on hold. Instead, the college bought the RadioShack corporate office, which is now TCC’s Trinity River and Connect Campus building.
“Panther Island is at the center of Fort Worth’s rapid growth and redevelopment, making the TXU building a highly attractive asset for buyers and developers right now,” Chancellor Elva LeBlanc said in a statement in October.
The college has said multiple factors played into its decision to sell the property now, such as developers’ interest in the Panther Island waterfront district and potential funding to repurpose the structure through a historic designation. Maintaining the dilapidated building has also been expensive for the college, and its condition makes it a dangerous eyesore.
On April 17, a 27-year-old woman named Estafania Sosa died after falling 50 feet through shafts near the hydroelectric plant.
Reginald Gates, TCC’s vice chancellor for communications and external affairs, told the Star-Telegram on Thursday that the bid timeline will be extended into December.
Gates said around 21 people attended the tour of the property, but he could not confirm how many entities they represented.
“We recently hosted a tour of the facility for the interested entities and decided to extend the bid opening date to Dec. 18 to provide the entities adequate time to respond following the visit,” Gates said.