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Nearly three years after Fort Worth officials first pledged support for the National Juneteenth Museum, council members officially confirmed plans to lease city property for the construction of the project. Council members unanimously adopted a resolution Feb. 11 stating the city will lease the property where the Southside Community Center currently sits to the Juneteenth museum for a term of 40 years at a rate of $1 per year. Before voting on the resolution, council member Chris Nettles, who represents the Historic Southside neighborhood, said it is important for both the city and the country to support the project and continue to highlight diverse stories. “We can’t lose our history, because our history is who we are. The National Juneteenth Museum is going to bring that history to Fort Worth. It is going to be a beacon of light,” he said. The resolution’s adoption was met with a standing ovation in the packed council chambers, with “Grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee, who has long championed the project, giving two thumbs up to council members. “Wow, I tell you, I could have hugged everyone, but they’ve got work to do,” Lee told the Report after the vote. The resolution comes more than a week after city officials committed to relocating the community center’s services less than half a mile away to the Hazel Harvey Peace Center for Neighborhoods at 818 Missouri Ave. City officials first floated the idea of tearing down the Southside Community Center to make way for the museum in October. The plan solves one of the Juneteenth museum’s most pressing problems. Despite acquiring land in the neighborhood, project leaders have been unable to acquire plots necessary for its original development plans. Fort Worth also plans to make a $15 million contribution to the Juneteenth museum once the nonprofit confirms it has two-thirds of the project’s planned construction costs on-hand without the city’s funding. The city initially pledged its financial commitment to the project in September 2022.As of Feb. 11, the nonprofit has raised more than $40 million — over half of its $70 million goal to start building, said National Juneteenth Museum CEO Jarred Howard. The museum will be able to demolish the Southside Community Center and build on its site only if the conditions are met, according to the resolution. Updated renderings of the National Juneteenth Museum show it where the Southside Community Center currently sits, at the corner of East Rosedale Street and New York Avenue in the Historic Southside neighborhood. (Courtesy image | Bjarke Ingels Group and KAI Enterprises)The National Juneteenth Museum has pushed back its completion date several times since it was formally announced in December 2021. Museum leaders initially planned to break ground in the first quarter of 2023 for a mid-2025 grand opening. The tentative date was later pushed with plans for a 2026 opening. Howard declined to comment on the Juneteenth museum’s opening date, but said the goal is to “break ground as soon as we possibly can.” The city’s willingness to provide funding and a lease for the Southside Community Center property is contingent upon the museum breaking ground on or before Oct. 31, 2027. The resolution initially stated the deadline as Oct. 31, 2026; immediately before the council’s vote, Nettles requested the deadline be changed to the 2027 date. Nettles told the Report after the vote that he made the amendment because it was his initial understanding the city would give the museum two years to collect the remaining funds and break ground. “Our focus has shifted away from the opening and on to the groundbreaking,” Howard told the Report. “I can’t speak to what our current opening projections are. I can certainly tell that we’re doing everything we can to break ground.” If the National Juneteenth Museum fails to meet the city’s requirements prior to the end of October 2027, City Council members may reevaluate whether to extend the deadline for an additional period of time under similar or revised terms, according to the resolution. ‘Fort Worth is committed’ The 50,000-square-foot National Juneteenth Museum will house exhibit galleries, a Black Box space, business incubator, food hall, courtyard, green space and a 250-seat theater for lectures, performances and speakers. The museum space would be located on the second floor of a two-story building. Fort Worth’s pledge is the largest the project has received, followed by several million-dollar contributions from private donors including BNSF Railway and Bank of America, Howard said. Texas lawmakers committed $1 million to the project in 2023 after Lee and other supporters of the project pushed for a $15 million pledge in the state budget. With Fort Worth’s reaffirmed commitment, the museum plans to go back to state lawmakers and ask them to match the city’s contribution, Howard said after the vote. The Texas Legislature is in session until June 2. Nettles said the city’s pledge to lease the center should help the museum secure needed funding for the project, noting that planners received pushback on funding requests without a permanent location secured. “We wanted to correct that situation and say ‘No, Fort Worth is committed,’” Nettles said. “Fort Worth has a location, and this is where we believe it should be.” Fort Worth City Council members clap after voting to adopt a resolution in support of the National Juneteenth Museum’s development Feb. 11, 2025. (Billy Banks | Fort Worth Report)Services will not be relocated from the Southside Community Center to Hazel Harvey Peace Center until the Juneteenth museum is fully funded and ready to break ground, Nettles previously said.Fort Worth also will approve and review a feasibility study to determine whether the museum’s ongoing operations are “economically and financially feasible” without the city’s contribution, according to the resolution. The study, led by the museum, came at the request of the city manager’s office months before the resolution was written, chief communications officer Reyne Telles said. “We’re anxiously awaiting what they have to submit, but I don’t know that we’ve put a firm deadline on it at this point, knowing that this is all part of the process,” Telles said. Howard said he’s excited to continue the museum’s partnership with the city of Fort Worth. “We’re grateful for all of the city support, which includes a great deal more than just this resolution,” he said. “I want to thank the citizenry of the Historic Southside and the southside neighborhood at large for their continued support.”David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org or @bycecilialenzen. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.