Fort Worth resident Laura Noller has been able to cut down on the stress of getting to work at UT Southwestern in Dallas every morning by hopping on the Trinity Railway Express from the Richland Hills station.
“I drove on the first day and I was like ‘absolutely not,’” she said.
But Noller, like many commuters dependent on the train, was not aware that the station will soon close. Instead, something new and modern will replace it on Fort Worth’s northeast side. At least, that’s what Trinity Metro and developer Ken Newell would like to see with the completion of the new Trinity Lakes Station, just east of Loop 820.
Scheduled to open on Feb. 19, 2024, the new Trinity Railway Express commuter station will sit atop an old gravel mine. The goal over time is to create a mixed-use neighborhood that spurs development in that area.
“It’s a small city right now, there within the development. There’s 3,400 homes out there. That’s a pretty good community,” said Newell, president of Newell Company and a former Trinity Metro board member. “It’s going to grow, and the mixed-use is going to service the needs of not only those families but the surrounding community.”
Leaving Trinity Metro and creating a new taxing plan
In February 2013, the city of Fort Worth created its 14th tax increment reinvestment zone. The goal was to encourage the redevelopment of the 1,800 acres east of Loop 820, along Trinity Boulevard and Precinct Line Road into a transit-oriented development.
According to the project and financing plans, the work includes over $50 million worth of infrastructure improvements and projects.
Transit improvements were always part of the plan, Fort Worth’s economic development department said, and the departure of Richland Hills from the Trinity Metro system in 2016 launched the search for a new station.
Since voters decided to no longer be a part of Trinity Metro, the current TRE station in Richland Hills is being decommissioned. A plot of land was found for the construction of a new station and continued servicing nearby residents with a commuter train.
“We could have just turned (the station) off and not had any service at that station. We thought that wasn’t a good idea because people use that station. So let’s keep it open until we can relocate and build a new station to the east in the city of Fort Worth,” said Chad Edwards, executive vice president of strategy, planning and development at Trinity Metro.
The land in question is owned by Newell, who bought the site back in 1999. Original plans for a mixed-used development did not include transit.
“At the time, we said we were rail ready but not rail dependent,” Newell said. “When (Richland Hills) decided that the transit authority wasn’t the right thing for them, we jumped on it and the city jumped on it. Trinity Metro was very eager, too, and so it’s a great location for it.”
A proposed transit-oriented development was created. The $26 million train station will be the 1,600-acre master-planned community’s first phase and will eventually see multifamily homes, townhomes, retail shops, restaurants and maybe even a grocery store on the land around the new station.
“We’ve talked to several grocers, and I think we’re getting closer and closer. Really, to do it, it takes rooftops. It takes the economics,” Newell said. “It’s going to be an ideal place with the lakes and the amenities here.”
Want to learn more about Trinity Lakes Station?
What: Trinity Metro is hosting a public meeting for riders to learn more about the new Trinity Lakes Station and track improvements being built for TRE.
When: 6 p.m. Dec. 12
Where: Rocketship Explore Elementary School, 300 E. Loop 820, Fort Worth
Free RSVP here: https://form.jotform.com/232366401920146
Noller said she could see herself visiting the future mixed-use development before or after taking the train to Dallas.
“Like a coffee shop — that’d be fun if it opened early in the morning, or like a little brewski,” Noller said. “It’d be so easy for people who lived over there that worked in Dallas and then just kind of hop on (the train).”
The station is 100% federally funded, Edwards said.
Edwards described the new station as a mix between Trinity Metro’s current Grapevine Main and Iron Horse stations, both on the TEXRail line. In addition to the station platform, there will be about 500 surface parking spaces. It could eventually become a garage as the area becomes denser.
“We put the T in transit-oriented development,” Edwards said. “So, without the T, you don’t have anything that’s TOD.”
To assist with the project, the Trinity Lakes tax increment financing board authorized up to $6.2 million in reimbursements for the construction of a new access road leading to the station, as well as extending a major water line to service the site. Another $18.5 million will go toward improvements to Trinity Boulevard and will be led by the city of Fort Worth, the economic development department said.
“The economic development department is excited by the progress being made on Trinity Lakes Station, and for the station’s long-term ability to support future development in the surrounding area,” the department said in a statement.
Trinity Boulevard historically was a four-lane road prone to flooding. As a primary connector, Trinity Boulevard improvements are a major deal, Newell said.
Renovations are expected to be completed by spring or summer 2024.
“(It) was a major linchpin for commercial mixed-use development,” Newell said. “Trinity Boulevard is going to be a beautiful road. It had to be approved before we could do the things that we’re talking about today because it was a street that flooded frequently. It wasn’t the environment to support what we envision here and what the project deserves.”
Development and generating investments
The rise of neighborhoods, the expansion of Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.’s employment center, and now the new station have encouraged the city and other private developers to invest in the area. According to the Trinity Lakes tax increment financing plan, the city expects over $384.2 million in commercial and urban residential development investment and $275 million in single-family residential investment to flow into the district by 2032, the end of the term for the zone.
The latest taxing district annual report shows that the Trinity Lakes district experienced its third consecutive year of double-digit growth in appraisals in 2021.
Newell said the benefit of the upcoming Trinity Lakes project can already be seen.
When Newell first started working on the project in 1999, the 1,600 acres in question were on the tax rolls for less than $5 million, he said. Today, they are worth over $400 million.
“We’re going to well over a billion-dollar project,” Newell said. “It’ll just continue where you build a quality project, and that’s what we’re really trying to do. It just creates lasting value and value builds on.”
Two residential projects in Trinity Lakes are already underway, too. One is an 184-unit townhome project and the second is a 327-unit apartment building.
“You should see (vertical) construction coming out of the ground on both of those projects early next year. And so it’s all really coming together at the same time with the station opening there early next year, and with Trinity Boulevard being completed in the spring,” Newell said.
As Trinity Metro continues to work on changing the narrative around transit, a different approach is also being used. Transit-oriented developments are becoming increasingly popular in large urban centers. Trinity Metro’s first transit-oriented development was Grapevine Main Station, serving the TEXRail line.
The city of Grapevine reported about a 25% increase in sales tax since 2020 citywide as a result of its TEXRail station. That’s almost a 40% growth within a five-minute walk of the station and over 30% within a 10-minute walk.
Officials are encouraged by Grapevine Main Station’s success and hopeful that it will translate to Trinity Lakes Station. Eventually, Trinity Metro would like to apply this approach to all of its TRE and TEXRail stations.
“The TEXRail stations have had city partners that have been more active in pursuing those transit-oriented development mixed-use opportunities at the stations. Whereas the cities along the TRE stations haven’t been as active,” Edwards said.
Trinity Metro says the relocation to the new Trinity Lakes station will not drastically impact scheduling, changing arrival time by just a minute or two. As for the current Richland Hills station, its final days are nearing before it is officially decommissioned.
“We’re going to pull down all the canopies. We’re going to tear out the platform that’s there, and we’ll end up realigning some of the track to make it straight,” Edwards said.
All that will remain will be the vacant parking lot.
“It’ll look mostly like there wasn’t ever a station there.”
Sandra Sadek is a Report for America corps member, covering growth for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at sandra.sadek@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details.
