Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has given the green light to a substantial increase of almost 100% in the construction budget for Phase One of the Texas A&M-Fort Worth urban research campus, increasing the total from $85 million to $150 million.

Demand for space in the Law & Education Building has exceeded expectations, and it will occupy approximately 225,000 gross sq. ft. or an estimated nine floors, providing space for programs such as engineering, law, business, and health sciences.

The Board’s decision comes with Chancellor John Sharp’s remark, “There is so much opportunity for the Texas A&M System to serve Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and all of North Texas, we had to go bigger and taller in the first building.”

The Law & Education Building is the first of a three-building complex that will be erected on four city blocks in southeast downtown, with the cooperation of the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, to support business growth and economic development.

The other two buildings will be a public-private sector project funded by city-issued bonds secured by lease payments from the Texas A&M System and private sector companies. The vision is to establish a hub of collaboration between the key Fort Worth industries and the top research, education, and workforce training assets of the Texas A&M System.

Approximately half of the Law & Education Building will be occupied by the Texas A&M University School of Law, which has increased its enrollment to around 1,200 students since 2019. The construction will be financed with the Permanent University Fund and other System funds, and the Regents have allotted $15 million of the $150 million construction budget for design and pre-construction services.

As early as May, the final authorization for the groundbreaking may be granted.

The Board has also approved other construction projects, such as a new dock and infrastructure for an ocean-going training and research ship for the Texas A&M Maritime Academy, a bachelor’s degree program in journalism at Texas A&M, an increase in cost for the Engineering Classroom and Research Building at Texas A&M University at Galveston, early procurement of machinery and materials for Tarleton State University’s convocation center, a new Nuclear Engineering Education Building, and construction of a Propulsion Test Facility at Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Turbomachinery Lab Project in College Station.