After months of dark windows and frustrated tenants, the Bass family is bringing in outside help to revive the retail core of downtown Fort Worth. The billionaire clan has handed off retail leasing at Sundance Square to global brokerage JLL, shifting control of roughly 105,000 square feet of storefronts to an external team in hopes of jump-starting a stalled scene.
As reported by The Real Deal, Ed and Sasha Bass have tapped JLL to run retail leasing across the 35-block district. The outlet notes that JLL brokers Michael Wheat and Isabelle Burnette will oversee leasing for about 105,000 square feet of space in a larger district that totals roughly 3.7 million square feet of restaurants, shops, apartments and offices wrapped around a two-acre central plaza.
Vacancies and criticism
Empty storefronts are not a new problem downtown. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram survey found that about 25 percent of ground-floor retail in the central business district sat vacant in 2024. The Star-Telegram also reported that Sundance Square had the single largest cluster of empty spaces.
Coverage from outlets such as KERA has detailed complaints from current and former tenants about opaque leasing practices and strict triple-net rent terms that some say made it impossible to stay open.
Office leasing was already outsourced
The retail move follows an earlier shift on the office side. Last year, the Bass family turned several Sundance Square office assignments over to Fort Worth-based LanCarte. As reported by The Real Deal, LanCarte took on leasing for the Schwarz Building, the Burk Burnett Building, the Cassidy Building and the Chase Bank Building within the district.
Why outside brokers matter
Brokers and developers who work downtown have told local media that bringing in a third-party firm can speed up marketing and make leasing terms easier to understand. The Dallas Business Journal reported that some professionals have struggled to find public listings and reliable leasing data for Sundance Square, a basic information gap that outside brokers are typically brought in to fix.
What JLL brings to the table
With a national platform and a deep bench of brokers, JLL can market Sundance Square’s vacant spaces to regional and national retailers as well as local operators, which backers hope will speed up lease-up compared with an in-house approach. The firm already carries Fort Worth retail space on its own site, a setup that could extend Sundance Square’s reach beyond local word of mouth, as shown on JLL.
Sundance Square and the Bass family did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Earlier coverage notes that the district’s spokesman declined to answer detailed questions about vacancies and leasing plans, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
For now, many downtown business owners see the JLL handoff as a public admission that the old strategy was not working, and that a new approach is needed to refill storefronts and bring back consistent foot traffic to the plaza.
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