Ground-Up Construction in Fort Worth

Because the jobs came first. Far north Fort Worth holds the largest industrial construction pipeline in the country, 7.7 million square feet across 20 active projects as of April 2026, plus roughly 3.2 million square feet across four speculative projects inside city limits. AllianceTexas alone had $18.3 billion invested through 2025, $16.7 billion of it private and $1.6 billion in public infrastructure including roads and schools, and it hosts 590 companies and more than 66,000 employees. Hillwood is adding a single 1.2 million square foot speculative building inside a pipeline of about 8.2 million square feet under construction or in design. That is a payroll base rather than a forecast, and it is the most defensible reason lot absorption holds up in Northwest ISD and Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD. We fund land plus vertical up to 70% LTV and 85% of cost, subject to underwriting.

Plan on roughly 7 to 8 days for a first residential submittal and about 3 days for corrections, with the city describing review generally as 3 to 8 days depending on complexity. Commercial work commonly runs 2 to 3 correction cycles. Those numbers come from a permit expediting vendor's published summary rather than a city performance dashboard, so treat them as a planning assumption and confirm with Development Services on your actual project. Fort Worth does offer expedited review, but we could not find a published turnaround time for it, so we do not underwrite to one. Bring us the review path you can document and we will size the term and the interest reserve around it.

We do not publish a number, because you have to pull it from the city. Fort Worth assesses impact fees on new development and redevelopment under Chapter 395 of the Texas Local Government Code, and the current per-unit water and wastewater amounts live on the city's own fee schedule. That schedule is the only source we would use. Permit and plan review fees sit in the city's fee tables and in code section 2-321 and move on their own calendar. Third-party guides quote dollar figures for both, and enough of them disagree that we will not repeat one here. The city also does not publish an easily retrievable single-family permit count, so you will not get a build-volume statistic from us either. Get the written fee stack from Development Services before you close on the lot, and we will underwrite the cost basis it produces.

Budget roughly 2% to 2.5% of value a year, confirm it at the parcel, and never model off a neighbor's tax bill. The homestead exemption and the 10% homestead appraisal cap apply only to owner-occupants, so a spec build is taxed on full assessed value with neither. Texas Proposition 13 passed on November 4, 2025 and raised the school district homestead exemption to $140,000, which helps your buyer and does nothing for your carry. Aggregators put the Tarrant median effective rate anywhere from about 1.52% to 1.77%, while a typical Fort Worth stack of city, school district, county, college and hospital district runs somewhere around $2.24 per $100 of value. The range is as fine as the published data gets, and the Tarrant Appraisal District is the authority for your address. Build in Weatherford or Burleson and you are in Parker or Johnson County under a different set of districts entirely. Take the tax planning itself to your CPA.

Yes on demand, no on appreciation. Fort Worth reached 1,028,117 residents in the July 1, 2025 Census estimate, added 19,512 people in a year and entered the top 10 largest US cities as of the May 2026 release. That is the second-largest numeric gain of any American city, behind Charlotte. It is a volume story, not a rate story: the fastest-growing cities by percentage in that period were smaller Texas suburbs like Celina and Fulshear, and anyone pitching Fort Worth to you on a percentage-growth ranking is quoting the wrong table. Pricing has been flat alongside it. Fort Worth-Arlington home prices were roughly flat year over year through May 2026 after small declines, and statewide in May 2026 the median was $340,000 with 5.3 months of supply and 64 days on market. Underwrite the spec to today's comparable sales and a realistic marketing period.

The supply picture is moving in your favor, and that part we can source. North Texas is expected to deliver about 21,000 apartment units in 2026, down from roughly 30,000 in 2025 and a peak above 44,000 in 2024. In the first quarter of 2026 DFW absorbed about 8,500 units against about 7,500 delivered, Class A rents were up 3.2% year over year for a fifth straight quarter and Class B posted its first year-over-year increase since 2023, while Class C was still declining. The apartment wave that held single-family rents down through 2024 and 2025 is receding. That is a supply observation, not a rent forecast, so underwrite the hold at today's rent and treat anything above it as upside. One planning note if the exit is a rental in the city of Fort Worth: short-term rentals are barred in residential zoning districts under a restriction upheld at the district court level in March 2025 and since taken up on appeal, so the base case is a long-term lease and the appeal's status is worth confirming before you count on nightly income.

Plan on about 15% of total cost, and check it against the value test as well. We fund up to 85% of cost and up to 70% LTV, whichever binds first. On a $900,000 Fort Worth build cost, land plus vertical, that is up to $765,000 from us and $135,000 from you (900,000 x 85% = 765,000). The money comes out in draws against the build schedule, not up front. Fort Worth-Arlington pricing has been roughly flat, so set the equity against today's comparable sales rather than a finish-date number. Subject to underwriting.

There is no minimum score on this program. We run credit, but a ground-up file is underwritten on the lot, the plans, the budget and the schedule. Weaker credit generally means lower leverage inside the 70% LTV and 85% of cost range rather than a decline, and there is no hard credit pull to start. Terms run 12 to 24 months with draws per the build schedule. Subject to underwriting.

Experience moves you up the leverage range. It is not the price of admission. Experienced builders can access higher leverage inside the 70% LTV and 85% of cost ceiling, so with one or two builds behind you, expect to sit lower in that range and carry more of the cost yourself. What we want either way is a documented review path, a contractor budget with real pricing, and a schedule that fits a 12 to 24 month term. Fort Worth plan review runs roughly 7 to 8 days on a first residential submittal, which is a planning assumption from a permit expediter's published summary rather than a city commitment, so bring the path you can document and we will size the term and the interest reserve around it. Subject to underwriting.