Tom Thumb has disclosed plans to the state to build its first store in fast-growing Forney.

The grocery retailer, which is owned by Albertsons, has filed documents for plans to build a 63,000-square-foot store at the intersection of FM741 and FM548. The location is an empty field near Forney High School.

The company hasn’t responded to a request for details but said on the planning documents that it would open in February 2025. A developer made a presentation to Forney’s City Council three years ago about plans to include a Tom Thumb store in a project with apartments.

Kroger and Albertsons are in the process of trying to persuade government regulators to approve their intentions to merge their U.S. grocery operations. The overlap in stores in several markets, including Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth, is a major concern and could derail the companies’ plans. In the meantime, Kroger and Albertsons, which in addition to Tom Thumb also owns local Market Street stores, are moving ahead with each company’s remodeling and expansion plans.

D-FW Retail News

The latest on retail openings, closings and trends in D-FW.

Email Address

By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Kroger built one of its first D-FW Marketplace stores in Forney in 2015. The store is 124,000 square feet and was merchandised to compete with the Walmart store that was already in Forney. Walmart last year kicked off the remodeling of 50 local stores with renovations at its Forney store.

Both stores are on U.S. Highway 80, which has become more congested with traffic as Forney and Kaufman County population growth rates have led North Texas.

H-E-B has purchased land in Forney, and while it was aggressively moving forward early last year and the city approved plans in March 2022, H-E-B hasn’t disclosed a timeline for that site. It has moved ahead with groundbreakings in Tarrant County in Mansfield and in Fort Worth’s Alliance development.

Forney approved H-E-B’s initial plans to build a 121,050-square-foot store on 15.4 acres east of FM548 and FM1641.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias

Looking for more retail coverage? Click here to read all retail news and updates. Click here to subscribe to D-FW Retail and more newsletters from The Dallas Morning News.

A huge Forney industrial property has just sold to an international investor.

The Forney Logistics Crossing building contains more than 900,000 square feet of warehouse space and was developed in 2022 by Dallas-based Stillwater Capital.

Located east of Dallas near U.S. Highway 80, the big distribution building is fully leased to trucking company Knight Swift. The building sits on a 47-acre site.

The property was purchased by Pennsylvania-based EQT Exeter, a unit of global investor EQT AB Group. EQT Exeter closed a $4.9 billion industrial building investment fund that represents institutional and private investors from the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

D-FW Real Estate News

Get the latest news from Steve Brown and the business staff.

Email Address

By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

The fund plans to develop and acquire industrial properties in major markets across the U.S.

Stillwater Capital and partner Grandview Partners sold the building in a transaction negotiated by Newmark Group’s Dustin Volz, Stephen Bailey, Dom Espinosa, Zach Riebe, Taylor Hare, Chloie Mercer and Caroline Wilson.

“Forney Logistics Crossing offered investors an ideal combination of new construction, building functionality and short-term weighted average lease term,” Volz said in a statement. “Pair that with a nationally recognized tenant that continues expanding into the East Dallas submarket, this opportunity was extraordinarily well-received by those looking to acquire a best-in-class asset with significant scale in D-FW.”

Texas is a top market for industrial building buyers, with more than $15 billion in properties changing hands last year, according to Newmark Group.

More than 70 million square feet of warehouse space is being built in North Texas. Forney has been one of D-FW’s fastest-growing warehouse markets, with major shipping hubs for companies including Amazon, Walmart, Lowe’s and Goodyear.

Stillwater Capital — which completed the just-sold Forney building in January — was founded in 2006 and has developed more than $2 billion in real estate projects. Stillwater Capital has built major apartment projects in markets across Texas. It’s also a partner in the PGA of America’s new headquarters, Omni Hotel & Resort and mixed-use development in Frisco.

FORNEY (CBSNewsTexas.com) – Some students at North Forney High School walked out of class on Friday.

It was over the resignation of a teacher who says she quit because of the way the school district handled her sexual harassment complaint.

Raising their fists and marching through the hallways, some students at North Forney High School staged a walkout Friday, calling for justice for CJ.

CJ is Carolyn Jordon, who surprised her students and fellow teachers when she made the decision earlier this week to quit the job she loved.

"I really wanted to be a teacher, because I discovered a passion for helping teenagers specifically," Jordon said.

It was Jordon's first job in teaching.

But behind the smile, outside classroom and away from the students she loved, Jordon says the last six months were a nightmare.

"It was extremely harmful, it's hard for me to open up a lot," she said. "This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life."

The 25-year-old says she was subjected to sexual harassment from a fellow teacher and documented the messages.

"He started small with inappropriate comments then it progressed more into asking for hugs," she said. "I had to push him back and then eventually escalated to a point that I felt so uncomfortable I broke down in front of a couple of administrators."

Forney ISD investigated and told us that "Multiple female employees, including Ms. Jordon, provided information about inappropriate comments made by a male employee. The district promptly initiated an investigation into those reports and the male employee resigned..."

But that wasn't the end of it.

Jordon felt betrayed for coming forward because the district's Title IX coordinator determined that what happened to her and other teachers did not rise to the level of sexual harassment.

"There would have been a thorough investigation of both sides and there would've been a public report available," she said. "He can go on and just keep harassing women at every job he goes to but if there's a Title IX report, at least maybe there's a possibility that more people will know and he can't hurt more people."

Forney ISD says it's investigation "...was immediately reported to the Texas Education Agency to ensure that his behaviors will not be continued at another school district."

Jordon says that only applies to school jobs in Texas and believes Forney ISD is more worried about protecting its image.

She also says in recent weeks she's felt retaliation.

"I had like three different administrators come up and tell me how to submit a letter of resignation, they gave me a deadline as to when I had to dye my hair," Jordon said.

So this week, Jordon decided to resign.

Even though her former students continue to support her, she says the experience has left her disillusioned and unsure about a future in teaching.

"I was pursuing my certification after this, I've just lost so much faith in especially the school system here."

J.D. Miles

J.D. Miles is an award-winning reporter who has been covering North Texas for CBS 11 since 1996.

Twitter Facebook

Listen now

Listen to this article now

EnglishDeutschFrançais

Español??Italiano

1.0x

0.50.60.70.80.91.01.11.21.31.41.51.61.71.81.92.0

1.0?

Powered byTrinity Audio

00:00

02:49

FORNEY, Texas – Taylor Chadwick of Forney, Texas, will appear in the bright lights of Broadway on Saturday, September 9, as part of the annual National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) Times Square Video presentation.

The one-hour video of roughly 500 photographs includes children, teens, and adults with Down syndrome from all 50 states. These collective images promote the value, acceptance, and inclusion of people with Down syndrome in a very visible way.

The photo of Taylor was selected from more than 2,400 entries in the NDSS worldwide call for photos. Her photo will be shown on two JumboTron screens in the heart of Times Square, thanks to the support of ClearChannel Outdoor. The two screens are located above Dos Caminos restaurant in Father Duffy Square. The presentation will be live streamed on the NDSS Facebook page from 9:30-10:30am ET on September 9.

The Times Square Video presentation kicks off the New York City Buddy Walk® at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The flagship Buddy Walk has taken place in New York City since 1995 as part of the National Buddy Walk Program. Buddy Walk events are held in communities across the country, as well as select international locations. For more information about the New York City Buddy Walk on September 9 or the National Buddy Walk Program please visit www.ndss.org.

About NDSS

Founded in 1979, the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) empowers individuals with Down syndrome and their families by driving policy change, providing resources, engaging with local communities, and shifting public perceptions. NDSS engages grassroots advocates at the federal, state, and local levels and creates resources to support individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and caregivers across the lifespan on topics including education, employment, health and wellness, and aging. NDSS founded the National Buddy Walk® Program in 1995 and hosts community engagement events throughout the country including the New York City Buddy Walk® and Times Square Video, the NDSS Adult Summit, and the Down Syndrome Advocacy Conference. Visit www.ndss.org to learn more.

About the National Buddy Walk® Program

Since 1995, the National Buddy Walk Program has been the premier Down syndrome awareness, advocacy, and peer-to-peer fundraising program in the world. It was created by the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome and to raise funds for local and national initiatives to support the Down syndrome community. Today, roughly 150 Buddy Walk events take place in cities across the country and in select international locations. To learn more and find a Buddy Walk near you, visit https://ndss.org/national-buddy-walk-program.

By Joseph Green-BishopTexas Metro News Correspondent

The family of Reeves Henry, an accomplished blacksmith, philanthropist and inventor who lived in Forney, TX until his death in November 1930, will get its wish when Forney officials unveil the historical marker recognizing his contributions that their relative made to the city, and its residents.

Jimmy Malone, a great-grandson of Henry’s who was born in Gregg County in 1859, said that members of his family had urged city officials in Forney for more than 30 years to pay tribute to Mr. Henry, whose business interests made him one of the wealthiest residents in Forney during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

“We expect that the marker will be unveiled this summer,” said Malone, a former supervisor at Dallas Area Rapid System (DART). “We are terribly excited that this struggle is finally coming to an end. There is a marker on the site in downtown Forney that notes that my great-grandfather repaired the first gas powered car in the state. But there is no mention of his name.”

The manager of the Spellman Museum of Forney, Kendall Nobles, said that the marker would make residents of the city proud of the many contributions that Henry made to the quality of life in their city. Among his inventions was a cotton chopper that separated seeds from the plant.

“Mr. Henry was known throughout Forney as a mechanical genius and a great inventor. An approval notice was received by the city of Forney in February of this year. Among other accomplishments, Mr. Henry repaired the very first gas powered horseless carriage in Texas in 1899, she said.

“The Henry marker will be the second in Forney dedicated to the contributions of prominent African Americans,” said Ms. Nobles. “It is very important to our community. Our board of directors is grateful that the Malone family contacted us.”

The other marker dedicated to an African American in Forney tells the story of Mr. William McDonald, an educator, business owner and public official. There are a total of 10 historical markers in the city, Ms. Noble added.

Ms. Noble said that the Henry marker was approved under a program created in 2006 by the Texas Historical Commission in Austin to address omissions in the state’s historical marker program, and to include more women and ethnic minorities.

The first person in the Malone family to contact historical preservation managers in Forney was Mr. Malone’s uncle, Lt. Colonel George H. Jackson, a United States Air Force veteran who earned a degree in electrical engineering from Tuskegee when he was 19 years-old. Mr. Jackson made his first request to Forney officials in 1986.

“This has been a very long and important struggle for our family,” said Mr. Malone. “We were always puzzled why his name was not included in Forney’s history, and why he had not been recognized for all that he had done. We always knew that we had to do something to accomplish it.”

Joseph Green-Bishop is a long-time journalist who has published newspapers in America and Africa. Currently he is a news correspondent for Texas Metro News.