Sundance Square management set to be headed by former Fort Worth city manager, according to insider reports
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David Cooke, former city manager, has taken control of Sundance Square management, according to sources close to the matter.
Sundance Square is a bustling 37-block entertainment district in the heart of downtown Fort Worth. It's filled with a mix of eateries, shops, and cultural attractions, including the renowned Bass Performance Hall. The Bass Performance Hall is a brainchild of Fort Worth billionaires Ed and Sasha Bass, who have owned Sundance Square since late 2019.
The Bass couple have been making headlines lately due to a series of closures, openings, and disagreements with Downtown Fort Worth Inc. management within the district.
Cooke's employment with the Basses comes two months after his resignation from his role as city manager. Cooke holds the title of Fort Worth's longest-tenured city manager, serving from June 2014 to February 2025.
Neither Cooke, Sasha Bass, nor a spokesperson for Sundance Square responded to requests for comment. Several Fort Worth City Council members and downtown business leaders either declined to comment or did not return requests for comment.
In 2022, Cooke stepped away from all city business dealing with Sundance Square after a Fort Worth Report investigation revealed he failed to disclose a trip he and his spouse took to Aspen, Colorado, with the Bass couple on their private jet. City Council members reprimanded Cooke for questionable judgment.
The getaway, which took place over Labor Day weekend in 2022, raised concerns about conflicts of interest. Some business leaders felt the relationship between Fort Worth's top administrator and the overseers of a significant chunk of downtown business was too close.
According to the city's code of ethics, city employees are not allowed to accept or solicit benefits from anyone who might reasonably influence their official duties. After consultations with the city attorney in 2022, council members ruled that Cooke's trip to Aspen did not violate the ethics code.
City code forbids former city officials from communicating directly with anyone affiliated with the city for one year after their employment with the city ends, except when the former official is lobbying on behalf of another governmental agency.
Cooke's appointment as manager of Sundance Square happens at a time of significant investment in and around downtown. Texas A&M is planning to invest millions of dollars in the southeast corner of downtown as part of its Fort Worth campus expansion. The Fort Worth Convention Center and Fort Worth Stockyards are both expanding, with $701 million and $630 million respectively budgeted for these projects. Last summer, the city's first modern luxury high-rise apartment building opened downtown, and a new hotel just south of downtown is expected to help anchor the area when it opens.
Sundance Square was managed by City Center Towers from the 1980s to January 2020, when Dallas-based real estate firm Henry S. Miller Company took over. In November 2020, management switched to an in-house format under Sundance Square Management LLC.
Since then, Sundance Square has struggled to keep tenants, with businesses vacating the area since the COVID-19 pandemic. Ed and Sasha Bass launched the Next Big Idea program in 2022 to help fill vacant storefronts with concepts from local entrepreneurs. In February, Sundance Square management announced plans for The Spotlight, a new live music venue at 310 Houston St., which has held its soft opening in March. More concerts are planned for this spring.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
Contact Cecilia Lenzen at [email protected] for more information.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
[1] Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram[2] Source: Dallas Business Journal
- The local news reports that David Cooke, former city manager, is now managing Sundance Square, a bustling entertainment district in Fort Worth, according to sources close to the matter.
- The Bass couple, who own Sundance Square since late 2019, have been embroiled in a series of closures, openings, and disagreements with the management of Downtown Fort Worth Inc. within the district.
- Cooke's appointment as manager of Sundance Square comes at a time of significant investment in the Fort Worth area, with projects like Texas A&M's Fort Worth campus expansion and the expansion of the Fort Worth Convention Center and Fort Worth Stockyards.
- The Fort Worth Report revealed last year that Cooke failed to disclose a trip he and his spouse took to Aspen, Colorado, with the Bass couple on their private jet, which raised concerns about conflicts of interest.
- After the trip, city council members reprimanded Cooke for questionable judgment, but they ruled that it did not violate the ethics code.
- Despite the controversies, Cooke's appointment as manager of Sundance Square is worth watching, particularly in relation to the Fort Worth's real-estate market and potential investing opportunities in the area by 2025.
