Bedford city officials have been considering for years how to move forward with major residential and commercial development on a roughly 30-acre patch of land at the heart of town, known as Bedford Commons.
But the full-scale version of the project is being paused, at least for now.
City officials say they’re adjusting their approach to making Bedford Commons a reality during a challenging economy.
“New commercial development is currently facing higher construction, labor, and financing costs, while many prospective tenants are cautious about taking on large upfront investments, especially in projects that are still establishing traffic and customer activity,” a city press release read.
The release continued, "Rather than pushing a plan forward simply to keep momentum, the City is choosing to pause, reassess, and change the approach."
The move comes after the city “mutually agreed to part ways” with Houston-based Midway Development. The entities teamed up in 2024 to move forward with plans for an ambitious development that officials hoped could serve as something of a town square.
The city plans to continue talking with Midway, knowing that the Bedford Commons project could be rebooted down the line.
Anna Deans, a Midway executive vice president, told KERA, “We made some recommendations to the city that hopefully they can move forward with in the near term, and we're always here if they need feedback or guidance.”
For now, the city is looking to sell some of the Bedford Commons land to a single-family housing developer, kicking off a phased approach to building out the property.
Multiple officials emphasized that the project isn’t dead, but that it will look different from earlier plans until economic conditions improve.
The history of Bedford Commons
Bedford Commons has been a part of the city’s ambitions for over a decade.
A 2014 presentation from Gateway Planning showed plans to make the space a central hub for housing, retail and dining options – a “main street” in a town that didn’t really have one.
“It became serious back in 2015 when we actually started to establish a zoning overlay district called Bedford Commons,” City Manager Andrea Roy told KERA.
Bedford Mayor Dan Cogan said around 2017, in earlier stages of consideration, the city administration at the time wanted the Bedford Commons land to be developed into apartment buildings.
That didn’t sit well with some residents.
“The residents, for all lack of a better term, revolted,” Cogan recalled. “They showed up to a council meeting and kept the council there until about 3 o'clock in the morning.”
According to Cogan, Bedford today has 35 apartment complexes, with around half of the city’s roughly 50,000 residents living in them. He said there’s a consensus that Bedford doesn’t need more multifamily housing, especially on the Bedford Commons property.
“I think we all agreed and came together as a city and said 35 is too much for a city our size,” Cogan said. “So, in this small piece of property that we have, we need to make the best use of it.”
In 2019, the city purchased some of the land from Realty Capital for $2.5 million, killing a deal that would have placed luxury apartments on Bedford Commons. Those apartments were envisioned with a Millennial audience in mind, potentially bringing younger professionals and families to town.
The Bedford Commons land, which sits between E.M. Bilger Boulevard and Parkwood Drive, south of Bedford Road and north of L. Don Dodson Drive, is among Bedford’s last undeveloped space. It’s grassy and dotted with trees, its borders almost entirely lined by sidewalks. It sits behind the Central Fire Station, which is expected to be expanded and moved next to the nearby Bedford Law Enforcement Center within the next two years.
While sources varied on the exact percentage of undeveloped land left in Bedford, they all placed it under 5%.
Because undeveloped green spaces are so sparse in town, some residents have called for the Bedford Commons property to remain natural. Cogan said while keeping some of the space intact is a priority, it’s not the city’s only goal.
“We want to preserve as many trees as possible, and green space, but also recognize the fact that we can’t just make this a park,” he said. “The city put money into this piece of property, so we need to have some return on investment.”
In 2021, the city established a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ, as a means of enticing developers. According to city materials, the TIRZ was created to fund Bedford Commons’ future infrastructure needs, including drainage, water and sewage lines, and roadways and parking.
Around 2022 and into 2023, the city put out a request for expressed interest, which essentially asked developers to show their vision for Bedford Commons.
Roy said the city worked with a developer for some time until progress stalled and “we kind of fell into that pattern again of, ‘I need to very heavily rely on the city. Can the city do this? Can we pay for that?’”
After splitting with the previous developer, city officials were introduced to Midway Development.
“Midway's vision absolutely aligned with ours, and they were not interested in pursuing multifamily,” Roy explained. “They have a great love of trees, and those few things right there were really at the top of our bucket list for this property.”
Midway executive Anna Deans said her team was “very interested” in the Bedford Commons project and working with city staff.
“We believe in the project,” Deans said. “We really love creating community destinations for cities like this, and so we do hope to continue conversations.”
The city partnered with Midway in 2024. About a year later, Midway estimated the project’s commercial development cost around $26.6 million.
Meanwhile at the national level, the overall cost of construction was rising. With lingering effects of inflation that started during the COVID-19 pandemic and the advent of new tariffs under the second Trump administration, the price of building materials and labor was creeping up.
A recent analysis from the National Association of Home Builders showed that residential building material price growth continued to trend upward at the end of 2025, while the new home construction market appeared to be slowing.
In July of 2025, the city granted Midway a six-month extension on its memorandum of understanding, allowing the team more time to determine development and financing options for Bedford Commons.
But on Jan. 7, the city announced that the project was paused, citing economic uncertainty.
“It is really just a matter of economics,” Deans said of the decision. “I think across the country, it's become very challenging to make new development make sense.”
Cogan said from this point on, the TIRZ will continue to grow, offering the city more leverage to develop the property down the line.
Council member Joy Donovan Brandon said because Bedford is so built out and so close to DFW International Airport, the city wants to be strategic about how it moves forward with projects like this one.
“We think it'll be a very vigorous process in speaking with developers about residential housing going forward,” Donovan Brandon said. “But that's not the end of what we think will be a commercial development also.”
Ongoing discussions
City Manager Andrea Roy said the city wants to be “fully transparent” with residents who have been looking forward to seeing Bedford Commons become a reality.
“But again, we felt it was fiscally responsible of us to go ahead and say, this is just not quite a match at this time and take a step back,” she added.
Roy said to date, the city has spent roughly $350,000 to make the property developable, conduct surveys and purchase engineering services. That’s in addition to the $2.5 million used to buy 8.07 acres of land from Realty Capital. All resulting work products are owned by the city, meaning Bedford officials can freely use the ideas they have on hand in future development.
From here, the city plans to sell parts of the land in a phased approach. The first portion along the eastern side of the property is slated to go to a single-family housing developer.
Roy said there’s room for reviving some of the original concepts for Bedford Commons when economic conditions improve. But for now, the city is looking to residential development as a means of bringing value to the space.
“The residential piece,” Roy said, “let's tackle that, get some value going, get some activity and momentum – feed the TIRZ, if you will, some revenue – and then we can come back in a few years and things are just going to be a little bit more stable.”
Immediate future of the site
A January city press release read, “While residents may not see immediate vertical construction, meaningful work will continue behind the scenes.”
The city is expected to continue preparing the site for future development, including getting FEMA approvals.
Council member Amy Sabol said despite the area being a tough spot to develop retail and restaurants, city officials remain hopeful about the project.
“I've always said the reason it would take off is because the freeways are so busy and when people come home on the weekend, they don't want to go someplace else to do something,” Sabol said.
“So, if we could create a little haven for people to have plenty of things to do in Bedford, we would have success,” she continued. “People are so tired of being on the roads because, as you know, Texas isn't big on mass transit.”
At a Jan. 13 city council meeting, resident Sal Caruso spoke in favor of public sessions for residents to offer their vision for the future of Bedford Commons.
“I believe hearing from the residents and listening, actually listening, to their comments will go a long way and establish a true communication tool for the residents of Bedford,” Caruso said.
Another resident, Vicki McCleery, said she wants to see part of the Bedford Commons property become a botanical garden.
“I noticed that there are a lot of people wearing scrubs that walk up and down Forest Ridge because we have a lot of health facilities,” McCleery said. “A lot of those people need a break, and they need someplace green to go to.”
The city is gearing up for the redevelopment of the Central Fire Station, which is currently behind what would become Bedford Commons, but will instead move next to the city’s Law Enforcement Center.
At a Dec. 9 city council meeting, an architect laid out design plans that include offices, larger vehicle bays, expanded living quarters, workout and training spaces, and kitchen and dining spaces. Construction of the new fire station is set to begin late this summer, with the project expected to be completed around the end of 2027.
As for the current fire station, officials have floated the idea of turning the building into a brewery or event space if it isn’t demolished.
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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