Fort Worth residents will get their first look at recommendations for turning a downtown building into a home for local artists at a public meeting Monday, Nov. 9, the city announced Oct. 19.
The city says it is transforming the building at 512 W. Fourth St. into a Community Arts Incubator meant to support Fort Worth's creative community. At the meeting, a community working group appointed by Mayor Mattie Parker will present its recommendations, and city staff will take questions and comments on the plans.
The meeting runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 100 Fort Worth Trail, and will also be livestreamed on the city's YouTube channel.
From library site to arts space
The city bought the building, first built in the 1920s, from the Center for Transforming Lives for $6.5 million in August 2024, after the former Central Library closed the year before, the Fort Worth Report reported in June. The plan was to put a new downtown library branch there.
At a June council work session, Assistant City Manager Dana Burghdoff said that plan would not go forward. Staff found the building's single entrance, small lobby with no space for security, L-shaped studio apartments and ground-floor day care rooms made it a poor fit, and that it needed $30.5 million in renovations, according to the Report.
Burghdoff described early ideas for an arts use: turning the ground-floor day care space into an artist marketplace, opening the grand ballroom and second-floor theater for community and performing arts events, and converting apartments on the third through fifth floors into artist studios. Redevelopment costs were to be presented in the fall after public input, the Report said.
The city has been without a city-run community arts center since the Fort Worth Community Arts Center in the Cultural District closed in December 2024. That building needs about $30 million in repairs, and its future is the subject of a separate feasibility study funded by local foundations and Visit Fort Worth, the Report said.
