Developers have until March 12 to make a pitch for what they would do with city-owned lots in the downtown Barron’s Branch project, which has grown in scope and price. The City of Waco previously budgeted $167 million in public funding for the first phase of the riverside redevelopment near Jefferson Avenue. That estimate has now soared to $213 million with the addition of a water reuse system, a large parking garage and an additional stormwater culvert.
City officials say the new expenses will not only save money in the long run but attract the private development needed to make the city’s investment pay off.
The Barron’s Branch district, located on the former Indian Spring Middle School track and campus off University Parks Drive, is the first phase of Waco’s ambitious 100-acre downtown redevelopment.
It will include a manmade creek weaving through a 12-acre park promenade. The Waco City Council acquired the land from Waco Independent School District for $32.2 million in October.
Developers are bidding for seven mixed-use parcels along the park’s periphery, which the city is making available for sale or long-term lease. Those lots form a U-shape along Jefferson and Washington Avenues and Fourth Street.
After the March 12 submission deadline, city staff will assess submitted plans and choose which ones to recommend to the Waco City Council. Proposals could be brought to council members for approval sometime between April and June, said Tom Balk, Waco’s director of strategic initiatives.
The city will prioritize proposals with strong private financing that “support the density and type of uses we want to see,” Balk said in an interview last week.
The proposal process brings the city into the final stretch of planning before an anticipated start to construction on Barron’s Branch this summer.
Private development is key to ensuring the city sees a return on the $213 million in public financing budgeted for the project, Council Member Darius Ewing said Monday.
“How we are going to make sure that we’re made whole for this giant expenditure … is through private development that we are able to collect taxes on,” said Ewing, whose North Waco district includes the site.
Doubling down
The city initially budgeted $167 million to build the park and infrastructure, including the stormwater drainage systems needed to develop what is now floodplain property.
The new total of $213 million represents several changes made to the district’s scope between November and December. The council late last year voiced support to add $5 million to replace a second stormwater culvert on Fifth Street — a block up from the already planned culvert replacement on Fourth Street.
Because the culverts are identical and each is needed to fully address the floodplain dilemma affecting Barron’s Branch, the city will save money in the long run by knocking both projects out at once, Balk said.
Council members also informally supported $5 million for the city’s first wastewater reuse system to irrigate foliage at Barron’s Branch and conserve potable water. On top of those changes is a planned $36 million, 750-space parking structure to service the park and its first commercial tenants.
“We won’t pull the trigger on that until later in the process, but we understand that we have to be prepared for that cost as well,” Balk said. Concerns over parking availability dominated early discussion around Barron’s Branch at Waco’s City Plan Commission, which provides recommendations to the council on planning and zoning matters.
Ewing described the parking structure as another incentive to attract developers to the seven commercial properties on offer. “The emphasis behind wanting to have the parking be a part of the initial enabling infrastructure is to help spur that development that will then, through taxation, pay for the (Barron’s Branch) park,” Ewing said.
Though the total cost of the project has climbed, the city received state approval for its short-term note program in early February, which is an essential piece of the district’s “creative financing” plan. Like a standard municipal bond, the short-term notes allow the city to borrow money for a public project, but the money is pulled out quarterly in smaller increments, “so you’re not paying interest … on the full project estimate,” Balk said.
Balk said the short-term note program could save Waco up to $20 million in interest payments over the duration of Barron’s Branch park construction. Funds banked up in Waco’s Tax Increment Finance Zone 1 will pay for the notes, while taxes generated by the district’s commercial developments will replenish and expand the TIF fund over time, at least in theory.
The Waco City Council is set to vote on the financing program on June 2, after a 45-day public comment period.
Residents will see a small increase in monthly water bills to pay for the upgraded water infrastructure, Balk said. “The projections that we have put it at about 58 cents (a month).” The city also hoped to get $30 million from federal grants to support the project, Balk said, but those grant programs were either paused or terminated.
Correction, Feb. 27, 2026, 9:29 a.m. Central:
This story has been updated to reflect newer estimates of utility rate impacts and interest savings under the financing plan.
