The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ bypass channel will cut through that area near downtown Fort Worth as seen on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2026.
Amanda McCoy
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
For 25 years, Fort Worthians have been hearing about Panther Island, a gargantuan flood control and development project that will transform an area north of downtown to include a San Antonio-style river walk, high-rise towers and homes for 10,000 people.
These days, much of the area planned for the projects aren’t much but grass and concrete where buildings once stood — but that is expected to change soon.
There’s a lot to Panther Island besides the island itself. Here’s what to know about where the development stands:
Two projects
What people might know locally as “Panther Island” as a whole encompasses two projects.
There’s the island itself, which first was envisioned in the early 2000s as a waterfront district north of downtown with a town lake and waterfront space. The Tarrant Regional Water District, which is the Army Corps’ local development sponsor, has called the plan a “once-in-a generation opportunity.”
The vision for Panther Island has shifted over the years, but the core is the same today: a dense, walkable 300-acre district that supports 10,000 residents as well as retail and office space. The plan for development on the island got a facelift in 2024.
That new plan envisions bike paths, public transportation, nearly 200 acres of developable land, and four canals that will act as stormwater infrastructure.
The island will include a 3-acre park where the Coyote Drive-In movie theater sits today. The Coyote, known since its inception to be a temporary venture, closed in September after 14 years.
The Coyote’s pavilion, with its shady trees and its view of the Fort Worth skyline, will stay with the park and serve as a space for dining, entertainment, and recreation.
The pavilion that was part of the former Coyote Drive-In will remain to be incorporated in the development of the future Panther Island as seen on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2026. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
When the Star-Telegram toured Panther Island sites in September, shortly after the Coyote closed, the beloved Fort Worth landmark was abuzz with construction.
In June, the city of Fort Worth approved a $10 million deal to help Austin-based Seco Ventures build a 12-story apartment tower on Panther Island. That project would be completed by the end of 2030.
The Encore Panther Island apartments, at 447 N. Main St., serve as a vision for what the canals are intended to look like at completion.
The Encore Panther Island apartment building, on North Main Street, has the first portion of the internal canal system of the future Panther Island built between its buildings as seen on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2026. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Nestled smack-dab in the middle of Panther Island’s footprint — or pawprint, rather — the apartments look normal until you see the Venice-style canal snaking through the middle of a courtyard.
That canal was built as a test case for Panther Island’s canals, said Matt Oliver, a spokesperson for the water district. Construction began in 2018.
A canal system is planned to cut through this area near Encore Panther Island apartment building, located on North Main Street, as seen on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2026. The canal system will act as a districtwide stormwater system for the future Panther Island. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
A contract will be awarded for the canals in late 2026, with construction expected to begin around December 2026 or January 2027, Oliver said.
Central City Flood Control Project
The other piece of Panther Island — the Central City Flood Control Project — is limited to creating new infrastructure for flood control. Dirt has been moving on this side of the project for several years, but starting in 2027, it is expected to be much more visible.
Fort Worth’s levee system was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s in response to a series of floods between the 1920s and 1940s.
The levees were built, Oliver explained, for a city of 350,000 people. With the city’s population of 1 million (and the concrete that comes with development), the levees just aren’t tall enough to give water a place to go in the event of a once-in-a-generation flood.
By the Army Corps’ estimate, by the early 2000s, 86% of Fort Worth’s levees were no longer tall enough to protect against that kind of biblical flooding.
“If you think of the river as a pipe, the pipe’s not big enough,” Oliver said. “The levees have done exactly what they’re supposed to, but we’re not going to stop growing,” Oliver said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ bypass channel will cut through that area near downtown Fort Worth as seen on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2026. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
To remedy that, the Army Corps will build a bypass channel along with “flood water storage sites” that will slow water down before it can flood neighborhoods east of Fort Worth. Some of the storage sites have already been completed.
Though it may get less attention than the development side of Panther Island, said Susan Alanis, the Panther Island program director for TRWD, it is a vitally important component.
“I think that people may be concerned that flood control wasn’t the priority, but that’s absolutely the driver of the overall effort,” Alanis said. “It’s these other things that are being cobbled together to make it all work.”
Construction is expected to begin on the north bypass channel later this winter or in early 2027, and wrap up in 2029. The southern portion of the bypass channel is still in the design phase.
Panther Island will be ‘spectacular’
All told, with its lofty vision for a multi-use haven, Panther Island is expected to cost over $1.1 billion. That estimate hasn’t been updated since 2018, even as inflation has surged 33%.
It’s an almost incomprehensible vision — but those who have been working on Panther Island since its early days believe in what it could create.
“One thing that I say when I talk to people about this project is that it has the potential of changing the definition of Fort Worth, Texas, worldwide,” said Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. — downtown’s local advocacy organization and a Panther Island partner. “This is such a monumental piece of Urban work, bridging downtown and the stockyards, and creating a waterfront mixed-use magnet in an urban area like this is almost unheard of in a city as mature as Fort Worth, and it will be spectacular, and it will draw worldwide attention.”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Emily Holshouser is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.