Hey Westoplexians,
This was a week of long stories finally turning a page. A streak in Aledo that's older than every kid on the roster ended on a Friday night. A flood project Fort Worth has been talking about for longer than most of us can remember finally hired someone to dig. And a quarry that once promised us a beach and a Ferris wheel is getting a walking trail and two benches. Some chapters end the way you'd hoped. Some don't. Most of them just turn into the next one.
Here's what caught my eye this week.
-josh
🏈 136 Straight District Wins, and Then the Punter Ran 77 Yards
It finally happened. Arlington Martin beat Aledo 35–21 Friday night, ending the longest district winning streak in high school football in the country. That's 136 straight district wins across 19 years. Nobody on this Aledo roster had ever lost a district game. The streak was older than they are.
And it didn't go out quietly. Aledo led 21–13 going into the fourth quarter. On the first play of the quarter, Martin faced 4th‑and‑2 from its own 23, and the Warriors let their punter, Kevin Grant, take off running. He went 77 yards for a touchdown. Martin scored 22 points in the fourth and shut Aledo out in the second half. Aledo running back Wyatt Dorsey still put up 210 yards, which is a hard night to have wasted.
Some context: this is Aledo's first year in Class 6A after moving up from 5A, and Martin is 5–0. Losing to a team like that is no disgrace. But when you're used to hearing "Aledo won district again" the same way you hear "it's hot in August," this one landed.
Maybe the best thing for a program this good is remembering what losing feels like. I wouldn't want to be whoever's next on the schedule.
🌊 Panther Island Finally Has Somebody Holding a Shovel
On Sept. 24, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $169.4 million contract to Walsh Construction to build the North Bypass Channel. That's the flood‑control piece that makes the whole Panther Island idea possible. No channel, no island.
The north section will be about 3,900 feet long and 300 feet wide at the bottom. It includes an earthen levee on one side, concrete floodwalls on the other, and walking promenades, trail connections, and a pedestrian bridge tying into the Trinity Trails. Earthmoving should start in late winter or early spring 2027. Target finish is 2029. The south section is still being designed, and local partners have already put in more than $374 million, with more funding still needed to finish everything.
If you've lived here a while, you've probably made at least one Panther Island joke. I have. But this is the first time in years that the project has a contractor, a price, and a start date. You could already see it coming when the Coyote Drive‑In closed earlier this month to make room. The promenades and bridge are the part neighbors will actually use, and I like that they're built into the flood control rather than added later.
Want to see the plans for yourself? There's a come‑and‑go open house Thursday, Oct. 22, 6–7:30 p.m. at the Northside Community Center (1100 NW 18th St.).
It's not an island yet. But for the first time in a long time, it's a construction site with a date on it.
🎡 The Quarry That Promised Us a Ferris Wheel
Back in 2018, a developer pitched a big plan for an old limestone quarry in north Fort Worth, between Meacham Airport and Saginaw. The plan had condos, two hotels, a conference center, a 3,500‑seat music venue, a beach, a splash park, and a Ferris wheel. Estimated cost: up to $280 million.
That's not what's happening. Greystar bought the property in 2024 and is building apartments there instead, called Birchway Quarry Falls. On Sept. 29, the city council is set to accept about 12 acres of the site as a donation, to become a city nature park.
According to the reporting, Greystar has put $1.13 million into public improvements so far. That has bought a quarter‑mile walking trail, two benches, and a trash can. I'm sure there's a lot of grading and engineering hiding in that number. Still, that is a very well‑funded trash can. The plan also adds another 1,300 feet of trail and a 40‑car parking lot.
Here's where I land: a nature park wrapped around a lake that formed from 50 years of quarry mining is a pretty cool thing for north Fort Worth to have. A beach in North Texas in August was always going to be a tough sell. Maybe the Ferris wheel was never the point. Maybe the point was that somebody finally did something with the place.
🤠 Fashion Week, But Make It Boots
New York has Fashion Week. Paris has Fashion Week. Fort Worth has one where you can get your boots branded.
Stockyards Fashion Week runs Oct. 2–4. It opens Friday morning with a "Legends of the West" panel at Provender Hall. Friday evening there's a happy‑hour kickoff on the Live Stock Exchange lawns with live music from the Donovan Amaya Band. The main event is Saturday's Western Fashion Roundup runway show, 5–6 p.m., which comes with a turquoise carpet and a performance from country artist Madison Paige.
All weekend, 12 artists from Cowgirl Artists of America are paired with Stockyards shops for an art‑meets‑retail walk. There's also a lot of hands‑on customizing: boot branding at Old Gringo, chain stitching at John Wayne Stock & Supply, and jewelry engraving and pin bars around the district.
Anyway, I'm not saying you need a new pair of boots. I'm saying that if you were ever going to get your initials branded into some, this is the weekend.
🏠 Nobody's Moving. That's Its Own Kind of Story.
Americans are moving less than at almost any point on record. Census data puts the national moving rate at about 11%, a historic low. A Bank of America Institute study found moving declined in the second quarter of this year across every income group, every generation, and every kind of move, from across the country to across town. A New York Fed survey found that only about 1 in 5 Americans expect to move in the next three years, the lowest since the survey started asking in 2014.
You know the reason. NAR's deputy chief economist called it the "golden handcuffs," meaning people who locked in low mortgage rates and don't want to give them up, even when the house no longer fits.
I get it. Nobody wants to trade a 3% rate for a 6% one. But life doesn't hold still just because your rate does. Kids grow up and leave. Knees stop liking stairs. The commute changes. A rate is one number on a page. A house that doesn't fit your life is something you deal with every single day.
The golden handcuffs are real. Just check every so often that they're still worth wearing.
⛵ Granbury's Last Big Lakefront Lot Is About to Get Interesting
If you've driven into Granbury on Highway 377, you've passed it: the green stretch on the southeast corner where 377 crosses the Brazos, next to Hoffbrau. It isn't green anymore. That's LakeView Landing, and it's getting close.
The project covers about 47 acres of Lake Granbury shoreline, one of the last big lakefront tracts left. Realty Capital started planning it back in 2019 and broke ground in March 2025. As of this month, crews are pouring the first foundations on the apartments. The full plan includes waterfront restaurants along a boardwalk, shops, a SpringHill Suites by Marriott, 289 apartments, pickleball, a dog park, and a public lakefront park with a lawn for live music. It's all designed to be golf‑cart friendly.
Four home types are planned. Waterfront custom homesites are the only lots you can buy on your own, and you have to build with one of the approved builders. The first homesites are expected by the end of this year. Townhomes, patio homes, and interior single‑family homes will be sold as finished, move‑in‑ready homes. The whole development is expected to be done in 2028.
My favorite part is the public park. Lakefront that anybody can walk up to, grab dinner, and watch the sun go down is exactly what a town like Granbury should have. The part I'd pay closest attention to if I were buying is the Public Improvement District. It's a yearly assessment on top of your property taxes, and a lot of buyers don't find out about it until the closing table. I broke down how it works, what it costs to own there, and who this project fits best on the blog.
Some plans take seven years. The good ones are usually worth the wait.
📜 Before You Go
On May 17, 1949, about 10 inches of rain fell overnight and the Trinity River turned into a lake 14 blocks wide through the middle of Fort Worth. At least 10 people died and 13,000 were left homeless. Afterward, the Army Corps of Engineers and what's now the Tarrant Regional Water District built the 27‑mile Fort Worth Floodway, which includes the levees you drive past today.
That system was designed for a city about a third the size of the one we live in now. So when you see dirt moving on that bypass channel next spring, that's the next chapter of a story that started in 1949.
That's the week in Fort Worth. As always, if you have questions about the market, want a free home value estimate, or just want to know what's happening in your neighborhood — I'm one reply away.
See you next week,
Josh Harville
Real Estate Professional | Fathom Realty, LLC | SA-0682306 Westoplex Region: Fort Worth · Aledo · Weatherford · Benbrook & surrounding communities
📞 817-917-8923
✉️ [email protected]
🌐 http://joshuaharville.fathomrealty.com/
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