BOLD Leadership in 2027
Learn the system. Meet the people. Build the region.
The leaders Tarrant County needs next are already here. BOLD is where they get ready.
What is BOLD?
A deeper bench for a region that needs one.
Infrastructure, capital and city decisions being made in Tarrant County this year will shape the region for a generation. BOLD exists to make sure there are enough prepared leaders in the room when those decisions get made.
Over eleven months, mid-career professionals move through the full commercial real estate lifecycle together, from raw land to lease-up. They sit with the people who actually move projects forward in Fort Worth, Arlington and across Tarrant County. They walk job sites, tour the region, sit in a city council work session room and take apart a capital stack. They deliver a group community impact project. And they finish ready to serve on a board, chair a committee or step into the civic work this region depends on.
There are strong leadership programs in North Texas. None of them were built for the Tarrant County commercial real estate ecosystem. BOLD is REC of GFW's answer.
Join the inaugural class.
Thirty seats. Mid-career professionals in and around commercial real estate who are ready for the next thing.
Applications open October 19, 2026.
Invest in the program.
Founding sponsors put their names on the program that develops this region's next generation of commercial real estate leadership. Levels from $2,000 to $10,000.
Sponsorships open October 5, 2026.
What you will learn
Nine sessions. One region, up close.
Sessions run one Friday a month, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., with breakfast and lunch provided. Locations rotate across Tarrant County because BOLD does not belong in a conference room. Save the dates now.
Welcome Happy Hour
Thursday, January 14, 2027 | 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
The class meets each other, the REC board and the Founders Council.
The Foundation
Friday, January 15, 2027
Program orientation, leadership fundamentals and a shared vocabulary for the year ahead. Every participant completes a leadership assessment and starts the program knowing where their own strengths sit. Whatever your corner of the industry, you leave this day fluent in the whole of it.
From Dirt to Deal: Site and Property Acquisition
Friday, February 19, 2027
Land & building brokerage, environmental & floodplain realities, opportunity zones & how a site actually gets tied up. Expect to be out in the field during this session.
Inside City Hall: Government and Municipal Affairs
Friday, March 26, 2027
The City of Fort Worth from the inside. Economic development and incentives, planning and zoning, entitlements, and what really happens between a case being filed and a case being approved.
The Capital Stack: Proforma, Financing and Structures
Friday, April 23, 2027
How projects get paid for. Financing structures, public private partnerships in housing and infrastructure and transportation, building and defending a proforma, and a plain-English tour of the legal documents that govern a deal. Plus where to find real market intelligence and how to read it.
Where Deals Live or Die: Site Analysis
Friday, May 21, 2027
Water, power, utilities, soils, grading and drainage. The unglamorous constraints that decide which Tarrant County projects pencil and which ones quietly do not.
Session Sponsored by: Atwell
The Growth Engine: Retreat Day
Friday, August 20, 2027 | Full day, 9:00 a.m. through dinner
A full-day immersion in Tarrant County. Its history, its present and the vision for what comes next, told on a bus that runs Alliance to the Stockyards to Panther Island to downtown to Near Southside to Arlington, with the people who built each of those stories narrating. Capstone teams are set this day.
Building It: Design and Construction
Friday, September 24, 2027
Design, pre-construction and owner budget alignment, and construction. Spend quality time with an architect, a contractor and an owner's representative in the room explaining where their interests align and where they do not.
Leadership Under Pressure
Friday, October 22, 2027
A morning of rotating C-suite roundtables. No presentations, no panels. Small groups, hard questions and candid answers from leaders who do not usually have an hour to give. The afternoon turns to building a network that lasts and finding the civic work worth your time.
Capstone Presentations
Friday, November 19, 2027
Groups present the community impact projects they have worked on to the Founders Council, the sponsors, the board and each other.
What you leave with:
Fluency across the full commercial real estate lifecycle, from land to lease-up
Direct access to the Founders Council and the senior decision-makers who shape this region
A working understanding of Tarrant County's municipal, infrastructure and capital realities
A community impact project you helped deliver, and can point to for years
A peer network across asset classes and sectors that compounds over a career
Readiness for board service, committee leadership and civic engagement
Who is BOLD for?
Built for mid-career. Not for beginners.
BOLD is for professionals working in or alongside commercial real estate in Tarrant County. Brokerage, development, engineering, finance, architecture, construction, planning, legal, economic development and the public sector. If your work shapes what gets built here, BOLD is for you, whether or not you would describe yourself as being "in Commercial Real Estate."
The strongest candidates are:
30 or older
Five or more years of professional experience in or adjacent to commercial real estate
Working in Tarrant County and committed to the region
Backed by an employer who supports the time commitment: nine Fridays, a retreat and a graduation
Interested in leading something, not just attending something
We build each class deliberately across sectors.
A room where everyone does the same job is not worth eleven months of your Fridays.
Build leaders. Build networks. Build Tarrant County.
BOLD is one of the clearest expressions of what REC of GFW is for: relationships, development and community – in one program, over one year – with thirty people who are going to shape this place.
QUESTIONS?
Contact:
Karen Vermaire Fox
REC of GFW
(817) 480-1060
Abby Johnson
REC of GFW
(817) 691-4927