Sundance Square Taps JLL For Retail Leasing

The Bass family is outsourcing retail leasing at Downtown Fort Worth’s crown jewel, Sundance Square, after years of criticism of its internal management.

Ed and Sasha Bass, who took over ownership of Sundance Square in 2019, tapped JLL to manage retail leasing at the 35-block mixed-use district that anchors Downtown Fort Worth, according to a release from JLL. JLL’s Michael Wheat and Isabelle Burnette will oversee leasing for 105,000 square feet of retail space in Sundance Square.

The Bass family, whose fortune traces back to wildcatter Sid Bass, developed Sundance Square in the 1970s. It features 3.7 million square feet of restaurants, shops, apartments and office space around a two-acre plaza.

The move comes after years of criticism of the family’s management of the space. Sasha Bass, in particular, has been criticized for allowing vacancies to pile up in Sundance Square while requiring strict triple net rents from popular tenants who were forced to shut down.

Developers looking to own or build downtown also need the blessing of the Basses to make their projects happen. Southern Land Company’s Tim Downey said he spent 15 years looking for a development site in Downtown Fort Worth before finding a spot for apartment complex Deco 969.

In 2024, about 25 percent of the district’s storefronts were vacant, a survey from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram found. Though Fort Worth recently became the 11th-largest city in the country, there’s little insight into its downtown office market, because the Basses don’t use websites such as Loopnet to advertise vacancies.They must’ve taken the criticism to heart, because the Sundance Square owners tapped LanCarte Commercial Real Estate to take over office leasing at the property in July. Fort Worth–based LanCarte now manages the 59,000-square-foot Schwarz Building at 505 Main Street; the 56,000-square-foot Burk Burnett Building at 500 Main Street; the 99,000-square-foot Cassidy Building at 407 Throckmorton Street; and the 201,000-square-foot Chase Bank Building at 420 Throckmorton Street.