Fort Worth is set to break ground Monday on a new Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, a 28,000-square-foot replacement for the existing facility that will bring a gym, library and aquatic complex to the Stop Six neighborhood. The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. at 1500 Liberty St., and the public is invited to attend.
District 5 Councilmember Deborah Peoples and the city's Park & Recreation Department are listed as participants in the ceremony, according to The Business Press. The new center will replace the current Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center and will include a gym, a library, fitness and workout space, and programmed space for social service providers, per the same report.
The project's design credit is not fully settled in available reporting: the outlet's coverage names both Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects and HarrisonKornberg Architects as having designed the project, without clarifying which firm, or whether both, handled the work.
A Decades-Old Facility Gets a Modern Overhaul
The center set to be replaced opened in 1973, according to 2022 reporting from the Fort Worth Report, which at the time described a proposed $25.7 million community center, then dubbed “The Hub,” as part of the city's 2022 bond election and planned for the 5100 block of Avenue G. That same reporting said the planned 28,000-square-foot building would house not just a community center but also an early learning center and aquatics center.
Funding details carry some ambiguity. The Business Press's coverage states that the City of Fort Worth's 2022 bond program contributed $25.7 million to the project, while the Fort Worth Report's 2022 account described the $25.7 million project as part of the bond election without specifying that the entire sum came from bond dollars.
What the Aquatic Complex Will Offer
Plans for the center's aquatic complex call for an eight-lane lap pool measuring 25 yards, an interactive play area and a leisure pool with a waterslide, according to the seed reporting on the project. A City of Fort Worth bond-program summary separately describes an outdoor aquatic facility with the same eight-lane, 25-yard lap pool configuration alongside an interactive play area with a large water slide, though that document is labeled with low confidence in available city materials.
A 2026 aquatics master plan covered by S&P proposed expanding Fort Worth's citywide aquatics system to 10 outdoor pools, 46 lap lanes, six spray grounds and four indoor pools. That same outlet reported the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Pool in Stop Six was expected to be completed in 2028 with an eight-lane, 25-yard lap pool and an interactive play area.
Part of a Larger Stop Six Transformation
The new community center is part of the broader Stop Six Choice Neighborhood Transformation Plan, which aims to bring expanded community amenities and pool access to the neighborhood and the greater east Fort Worth area. Fort Worth Housing Solutions and the city were awarded $35 million in initial HUD Choice Neighborhood grant funds in 2020 for that neighborhood transformation effort, according to the Fort Worth Report, which reported the grant is expected to trigger more than $345 million in investment and improvements in Stop Six.
That same initiative includes a community hub planned to offer recreation, education, health services, job training and commercial space. Housing has also been part of the push: the Fort Worth Report reported that Fort Worth Housing Solutions held a groundbreaking ceremony in June 2026 for Hughes House II, described as the fifth phase of new development in Stop Six, with the project at 5028 Avenue G planned to offer residents 302 units, including one- to four-bedroom options.
