Tarrant County College Buys Radio Shack HQ, Cancels 2nd Half Of New Campus
by Kevin Buchanan
Well, this is certainly out-of-nowhere. Sandra Baker in the Startlegram has the news:
The Tarrant County College District said this morning that it will pay $238 million to buy the downtown Fort Worth Radio Shack complex from KanAm Grund.
The purchase will not affect construction of the TCC facility underway on the south bluff of the Trinity River in downtown Fort Worth. Construction north of the Trinity River will no longer be necessary.
Huh. On the upside, that mean we’re pretty much finished with the stories of the cost overruns and such on the new campus. On the other hand, though, it’s disappointing for those of us who were looking forward to seeing that new campus completed, at least from an architectural perspective.
Two questions come to mind:
1) Where’s Radio Shack going to go? There’s not much vacant office space in downtown, and while I’d love to see them build something new I doubt they’re in much of a position to do so.
2) How does this affect (if at all) the old TXU power plant across the river from the Radio Shack HQ, which is also owned by TCC (unless I’m mistaken)?
UPDATE: The now updated article says Radio Shack will lease space back from TCC through 2011, with an option to continue until 2013.
25 Comments, Comments or Pings
Max
I hope this enhances the possibility that something positive will happen with Heritage Park, too.
Jun 25th, 2008
jobsanger
I was living in Ft. Worth when Radio Shack built the new headquarters, and at that time, I wondered how they could afford to do it. They were closing retail locations while they built it.
Jun 25th, 2008
Sarah
I believe RadioShack is staying in 400,000 sq ft of the location…leasing it from TCC
Jun 25th, 2008
Chasity
I have also heard that Radio Shack will be leasing from TCC until 2011, and then possibly on through 2013.
Jun 25th, 2008
Steph
Well, that’s weird news I wasn’t expecting to hear . . .
Jun 25th, 2008
Quaid
So, they use eminent domain to take Ripley Arnold and give it to Radio Shack with a 30 year tax abatement, and this is all we got? A expensive campus for a school with very little to no talent!
Great…
Jun 25th, 2008
Kevin
I do have to take issue with the “little to no talent” thing. I think TCC is a fine school. My favorite professor, ever, was at TCC.
Jun 25th, 2008
Quaid
Kevin, that all the issues you want with it. You think it is good, I don’t. I won’t go into a long protracted argument about it. We must agree to disagree.
It is a waste to spend large sums of money on state of the art buildings for a community college. Spend that money on upgrading professors and programs. The argument that a shiny building attracts quality doesn’t hold water, or does it? Seems plenty of ink has been spread about a oil compnay buying news digs.
Just my opinion though.
Jun 25th, 2008
Kevin
I’m not trying to get into an argument over it. Just that I’m a TCC alum and had a great experience. Your milage may vary.
Jun 25th, 2008
JK@GT
Quaid, I don’t think the main point of the purchase is to have a “state of the art” building. It is, first and foremost, to add class room square footage in an effort to improve the quality of the education offered by the college. I have no opinion about the design and execution of the architecture or the politics involved.
Jun 26th, 2008
John MacFarlane
What happened to the Taj Majal of community/county colleges? I’m so glad they made use of an existing building instead of digging into historic levees, going around the Corps of Engineers and ruining more of the historic view from the courthouse. FW really screwed itself when they gave tax abatements to both RS and Pier One to build their new office buildings. The whole TCC downtown campus was a waste of money and a sham! It’s ridiculous for a community college to spend that much money for a campus.
Jun 26th, 2008
Kevin
I’m not sure I see how there’s anything historic about the levees.
Jun 26th, 2008
John
Kevin,
If you look at the Trinity River Vision FEIS, you’ll notice that the levee system, built from 1910 to 1957, (according the Federal government, structures older than 50 years must be evaluated for historic integrity) was evaluated under the Cultural Resources section. It was found that the flood control system, including levees, may be eligible to be listed in the NRHP or National Register of Historic Places.
Jun 26th, 2008
Kevin
I never said you didn’t. I just disagree that the levees are worth saving.
Jun 26th, 2008
Jacko
Is anybody going to claim this was a conspiracy by the Bass family to get rid of the sunken plaza?
Jun 26th, 2008
Kevin
You never know what people will claim. I was not a big fan of the sunken plaza, so losing that doesn’t bother me a great deal personally. Bass was right in his criticisms of it, I think.
Jun 26th, 2008
Quaid
$40 million in renovations for 51 classrooms
It will cost 820,000 per classroom just for renovations!!!
How about spending that money to attract better teachers?
Jun 27th, 2008
Recyclican
I think it is unfortunate that all of that land previously reserved for a quite possibly LEED certified college campus will be up for grabs again. I know it is sustainable to reuse an office building rather than build new construction; however it’s the remaining land and what will be developed on it that concerns me.
Poor Bing still has the entire campus project listed on his web site…I hope he didn’t learn the news as abruptly as we had!
Jun 27th, 2008
John Peter Smith
Mr. Quaid:
Eminent domain was not used to take the Ripley Arnold housing complex. Radio Shack purchased the property and the low-income residents were resettled in the suburbs where the downtown powerbrokers don’t have to look at them.
Did the city get their money’s worth from the tax abatements given to Radio Shack? No.
Have they ever gotten their money’s worth for any tax abatements? No.
Jun 27th, 2008
Mrs QD
R.I.P DTC!!! I will miss Ripley Arnold. I grew up there and I have accomplished a lot from growing up there. I am glad TCC will be taking over because I was mad when Radio Shack bought it out. At least now I will feel it is going to good use.
Mrs. Q.D.
Aug 2nd, 2008
Dennis
The whole concept of a downtown campus is absurd. The existing campuses are not even near capacity. Just walk around any of the existing campuses from 12:00pm - 5:00pm on a week day and guess what, very few classes in session. UTA is truly running at capacity and they have classes every hour without campus wide breaks. Think about this: who from the downtown area will attend classes at the new campus? Not the affluent business folk who occupy the outrageously expensive housing. All of the other campuses are within a ten minute drive of downtown. Here’s the low-down: the chancellor of the district and several croanies who are posturing for higher public office and higher pay and are using taxpayer money to achieve personal goals. Why can’t the college district add to and upgrade the existing campuses, two of which are over 40 years old and are degrading rapidly. Each campus has plenty of room to expand. Let’s increase the pay of support staff. A secretary who just warms a chair all day and can’t even type a email without noticing glaring spelling and grammar mistakes before sending it to everyone on campus gets paid more than employees on the supervisory level who have much more responsibility. Here’s yet another reason why this new campus idea stinks: the district hires a Canadian engineering firm that has no previous experience building next to water. Since the company is based in Canada, the key players with the district get to fly to Canada for “business” meetings which can only be accomplished in person. For a institution who has spent millions on distance learning and state of the art satellite based tele-conferencing capabilities for the top dollar administrators, why don’t they use it?
Changing subjects, the quality of education at TCC is only relative to the instructor and how much the student wants to learn, as it is at any institution of higher learning. There are many great professors who don’t water down the class content and who expect above average performance from their students. Here’s the kicker, by law, professors at TCC cannot hold their students to the highest of standards because the powers that are believe that most of the people who attend are not capable of working at such high levels. If a professor has a class in which a certain percentage of students don’t make A’s, they are chastised and told to make the numbers look better, or else. Also, all the students have to do is complain that a professor is too hard, and they get special treatment for fear of a law suit since this is a taxpayer based company.
One more thing, I can’t believe that a current board member can plead no contest to federal charges in which she received payment from both TCCD and the FTW school district for the same trip out of state for thousands of dollars. She got probation and had to pay a stiff fine. Guess what? Since she is elected and not a regular employee, she is not held to the same standard as the hourly employees. If a maintenance worker writes a hot check and the district finds it on their yearly criminal background check, he is fired. But a board member who pleads no contest to federal charges of stealing taxpayer money can keep their post. This can go on and on. Here’s another idea, lets call the FBI and have them investigate all of the financial records for the last 10-15 years and hold the department heads who steal district equipment on a regular basis accountable for their actions.
Aug 17th, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
I take issue with the idea that a downtown campus is a bad idea. It isn’t. All of TCC’s other campuses are in far-flung car-dependent suburban sprawl areas - areas which will have decreasing importance and decreasing viability in the years to come post cheap oil. Urban Fort Worth is changing, and I feel the need for a downtown presence by TCC is very important with more and more residents moving back into the central city (NOT just downtown - why would a downtown campus only be used by downtown business people and residents?). A college campus in a walkable, mixed-use, transit-supported environment is nothing but a fantastic idea.
The way they’ve gone about it is terrible, but the idea of a downtown campus most certainly is not.
Aug 18th, 2008
Chachi
Kevin, I think the first point Dennis was making was no one that lives downtown will be using the campus. Do you think that TCC will fill it’s classrooms with “urban dwellers” (because I don’t see it)? It will require gas dependent vehicles from the dreaded suburban sprawl areas….quicker just to go either way on 820 to a more convenient campus.
Aug 18th, 2008
Bernie
Every public transit line, bus or train, ends in downtown Fort Worth… so this campus would be accessible to people from all parts of town, without additional “gas-dependent” vehicles.
Not defending the boondoggle the project has become… I’m just saying.
Aug 18th, 2008
Reply to “Tarrant County College Buys Radio Shack HQ, Cancels 2nd Half Of New Campus”