Abandoned Fort Worth power plant up for consideration as endangered landmark
The city of Fort Worth’s Development Services department is seeking to designate the abandoned Fort Worth Power and Light Company Plant/TXU plant on North Main Street as a highly significant endangered landmark after the property was recently listed for sale.
The plant, which sits alongside the Trinity River north of downtown, opened in 1913 and was the main source of power generation in Fort Worth until the 1950s. Built in the classical-influenced Beaux-Arts style, the power plant permanently closed in 2004. Tarrant County College purchased the property the same year, along with surrounding land, to build a downtown campus that never came to fruition.
Instead, in 2009 the college turned the former RadioShack corporate headquarters off West Belknap Street into its downtown TCC Trinity River campus.
In the fall, TCC listed the eight-acre power plant property for sale. A November Star-Telegram report noted the property’s close proximity to the $1 billion Panther Island development that is in progress.
“Proceeds from the sale can be reinvested in TCC’s core educational priorities — upgrading teaching and learning equipment, to better serve our students, our future workforce for the region,” TCC Chancellor Elva LeBlanc said in a statement in November.
Lorelei Willett, Fort Worth’s historic preservation officer, asked the City Council to adopt a resolution allowing her to nominate the power plant for historical designation from the city’s Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission. TCC has been notified that the city is pursuing the designation.
Once the property is nominated for consideration as a highly significant endangered landmark, it will be subject to oversight while the designation is pending. That will limit what TCC or a future owner, assuming it sells quickly, could do to the site without approval from the Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission.
If the designation is granted, the property would be eligible for a Historic Site Tax Exemption from the city for rehabilitation projects.
The Star-Telegram’s Fousia Abdullahi contributed to this report.