Who they are
FACT: Trinity Terrace is a continuing care retirement community in downtown Fort Worth — three towers, the newest 23 stories, opened in 2017. It’s operated by Cumberland Rest, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has been tax-exempt since 1943 and reported $52.45 million in revenue in fiscal 2024. That’s all public record — read the IRS filings yourself.
What they want to build here
FACT: Trinity Terrace purchased the 27-acre Kite Farm on White Settlement Road — one of the largest undeveloped tracts left in the area, with Trinity River frontage — and sought rezoning for a campus-style luxury senior living development, reported at a $350 million investment. For scale: the entire village’s property tax base was reported at roughly $440 million. Coverage: Fort Worth Report, KERA. Trinity Terrace’s own website describes land “on Fort Worth’s west side” for its biggest project yet.
FACT: Mayor Jones supported the rezoning, per that same news coverage. A rezoning connected to the project was brought to the city and rejected. The project is still alive and may come back.
Why “tax-exempt” is the whole question
FACT: Being a 501(c)(3) exempts an organization from federal income tax. Texas property tax is a separate question with its own test: Tax Code § 11.18(d)(19) exempts a nonprofit retirement community only if it offers independent living, assisted living, and nursing care on a single contiguous campus and provides at least 4% of net resident revenue as charity care — and even then, only if the owner applies to the county appraisal district and is approved. It is never automatic.
FACT: Trinity Terrace’s downtown campus has that exemption. As of July 2026, Tarrant Appraisal District records list the 1600 Texas Street property — appraised at $103.9 million — as exempt under § 11.18(d)(19). When Tarrant County approved roughly $72.6 million in bonds for Trinity Terrace in 2024, one county commissioner voted no, saying the charitable designation “is really pushing the boundaries and stretching the definition.”
FACT: The Westworth land is a different story — for now. TAD records show Cumberland Rest acquired the Kite Farm parcels in August 2022 (eleven accounts, about 26.7 acres, roughly $4.2 million in market value), and no charitable exemption has been granted on any of them. About $2.5 million of that value is fully taxable today; the rest sits under the old farm’s agricultural appraisal, taxed on productivity values of a few hundred dollars per parcel. Texas law adds one more wrinkle: converting agricultural land to development triggers rollback taxes.
UNVERIFIED: Whether a Westworth campus would seek — or would qualify for — the § 11.18(d)(19) exemption is an open question. We have found no public statement from Trinity Terrace committing either way. It is a question the council could ask, on the record, before any rezoning vote.
FACT: Cities sometimes negotiate a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement with a tax-exempt owner to offset lost revenue. Residents have filed public information requests asking whether any written PILOT agreement connected to future development exists. Nothing has been produced to us yet; whatever comes back gets posted here.
OPINION: Maybe this project is right for the village and maybe it isn’t — reasonable neighbors can disagree. But if a tax-exempt project of this size is coming, the village should be negotiating from strength, in public, with the numbers on the table — not learning the terms after the fact.
Where this connects to everything else
SPECULATION: The June 18 legal-fees vote and the P&Z shake-up both happened while this project was still alive. Whether those actions were taken to clear a path for the rezoning is our speculation — we say so plainly — but it’s the question that ties these pages together, and residents deserve a plain answer to it.