The Zoe Center house on East North 10th Street southeast of campus is being torn down to create space for potential residential developments as well as a potential spiritual retreat center.
Plans to potentially develop this area started in 2015 and have not made much progress until the recent demolition of the home on the property.
Despite the lack of development thus far, Kelly Young, chief financial officer, said that the property is still being considered for development.
“The hope is twofold for the property: One is that we may be able to develop a single-family residential development there that could serve this side of town,” Young said. “The other is that some of that land was originally obtained by the university to possibly build a retreat center and so that is also still a possibility. There is a small amount of it set aside if that’s something the university decides to do.”
The Zoe Center, a 100-acre plot with the 22,oo0 square foot house was donated to ACU nearly 22 years ago. Since then, the university has purchased land around the property accumulating around 425 acres of land.
Dr. Carson Reed, executive director of the Siburt Institute, said even though the plans and possibilities for the retreat center exist, the funding does not.
“Various groups are always trying to raise money and the right donor to date has not come into view to fulfill that plan which is really consistent with high commitments that the university has and the Siburt institute has,” Reed said. “We have got other financial commitments and funding goals that’s we have and the rest center is not at the top of the list.”
The property now is being used by the cross country team and will continue to be utilized by the Department of Athletics until plans to develop it are concrete.
“We have a developer in Fort Worth that does single-family residential development that we’re working with to try to create a plan and see if it’s feasible to develop it,” Young said. “We’re still a ways away from knowing if we’ll be able to use it for the two things that I talked about so right now unless athletics decides they’re ready to do something else, it will be continued to be used for cross country until we decide to develop it and we will work with athletics on a timeline.”
