For the last several years, Fort Worth’s retail market has posted a vacancy rate of 5 to 6 percent, suggesting that absorption is strong yet new construction is still permissible. However, there is a difference between Fort Worth’s vacancy rate and that of comparably sized markets wherein 95 percent of the retail space is occupied. In Fort Worth, occupancy is evenly distributed from submarket to submarket. Because of this balance, the metro’s most thriving retail neighborhood — the university corridor — and the driving forces behind its growth often go overlooked. Perhaps because it has only one campus that is located within a large city and even larger metropolex, Texas Christian University (TCU) doesn’t always get the credit it deserves for driving retail growth in Fort Worth. Rarely in recent history, however, has the connection between the two been more visible. According to the school’s website, its total enrollment was approximately 10,400 students during the academic year ending in May 2017. Three years earlier, that figure stood at roughly 9,700. That difference of 700 or so students may not seem like much at first. But it bears reminding that these are young adults attending a private university. This means that …
