Big plans for Hurricane Harbor; Record-setting apartment construction; Standard Meat meets Tom Vandergriff.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. announced the largest expansion in park history for Hurricane Harbor in Arlington for 2025. The expansion includes a 58,000-square-foot, multi-level interactive kids' play structure with 110 water features, seven water slides, and a 1,000-gallon Texas-sized tipping water bucket.

Texas sued General Motors and OnStar in a Texas court, accusing the companies of selling drivers’ data to insurance companies without their consent. The lawsuit is part of the AG office’s investigation into several manufacturers for similar illegal data-collecting behavior.

Many Republican state lawmakers and the National Rifle Association's lobbyists want to reverse the State Fair’s ban on all guns put in place last week after a shooting last year injured three people. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the license-to-carry ban on public grounds "unlawful" and said he's giving Dallas 15 days "…to fix the issue. Otherwise, I will see them in court."

LL Flooring, a specialty flooring company formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, is closing approximately 25% of its stores as it files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Three stores - Fort Worth, Arlington and Denton - are included in the closures. 

Allen Fairview, (Texas) Chamber of Commerce has hired Kyle Jacobson as Chief Executive Officer, effective Sept. 3. He is currently Vice President of Government Relations and Business Intelligence for the Fort Worth Chamber.

D-FW ranked second in the nation for new apartment construction, according to a study by RentCafe. With 32,932 new apartments expected to be completed by the end of the year, the metroplex fell just three units behind New York City in the top spot with 32,935.

The Inc. 5000 list for 2024 is out, with 205 fast-growing companies from D-FW making the cut. Here’s the top 5 from Tarrant County:

• No. 229, PMR Roofing, Arlington

• No. 276, BODYBAR Pilates, Fort Worth

• No. 810, TimelyCare, Fort Worth

• No. 1,343: KeyCity Capital, Southlake

• No. 1,477: Whitlock Building Services, Grapevine

If you live in Granbury, there’s a good chance you’re getting Chili’s chicken wings delivered by drone. Airborne startup Flytrex has made 35,000 food deliveries in Granbury since 2022, with an average delivery time of 4.5 minutes. The service is now delivering orders from Jersey Mike’s, Little Caesars, Papa Johns, Raising Cane’s, and several other restaurant brands. Flytrex said expansion to more D-FW cities is planned.

Standard Meat Company has been named the winner of the Fort Worth Chamber’s 2024 Vandergriff Award and will be recognized at the “State of the County” event Aug. 23. The annual award is named in memory of Tarrant County Judge Tom Vandergriff, who brought the Texas Rangers to Arlington from Washington D.C. in 1972. 

UNTHSC's College of Nursing received final approvals from the Texas Board of Nursing for its new Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner programs. The BSN is to begin in January and the MSN will start in August 2025. 

Fort Worth-based KPS Global has been sold to 107-year-old Viessmann Generations Group in Germany. Terms were not disclosed. KPS has more than 800 employees and operates 725,000 combined square feet of manufacturing space in five manufacturing and warehousing facilities, including one in Texas. KPS was formed in 2015 by D Cubed Group through the acquisition of Kysor Panel Systems. 

Realty Capital, a Dallas-based firm, announced the purchase of 309 acres between W. Broad Street and Newt Patterson Road in Mansfield for a 600-home Westhill Parks development. Prices project to a range of $600,000 to $1.5 million. The city has 100 acres within the development planned for a nature preserve. 

What’s Up Fort Worth’s 6th annual Burger Week is Monday through Friday (Aug 19-23), benefitting the Tarrant Area Food Bank. Approximately 30 restaurants will offer a specialty burger for $7 all week. See details here. 

The PGA Tour has released its 2025 schedule. The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club will be May 19-25, and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney will be April 28-May 4.

This fall, medical students from the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at TCU and students from the Culinary Arts program at Trimble Tech High School will partner to create a program to help with community health challenges.

It had been 2020 since Fort Worth raised its water and waste fees for 2024, an average household increase of $2.18 monthly. There's a proposal to raise them again beginning Jan. 2025. Projected average household increase is $1.71 a month. 

Royal Capital, based in Milwaukee, has been selected as the master developer for the Evans & Rosedale project in Fort Worth's Historic Southside. Eleven proposals were submitted. 

Daily digit: Inflation cooled to 2.9% in July — the first time it's been below 3% since 2021. This could signal that the Fed may cut interest rates in September. Core inflation rose 3.2%, in line with expectations. The Fed's preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures index, will be released Aug. 30.

Significant stat: The day Starbucks announced it had hired Chipotle CEO Brian Nicole as its CEO, the stock rose 24.5%. Chipotle's stock dropped about 7.5%.

Snippets:

• Why Southlake-based Sabre requested a board member to resign. And he did.

• Tarrant County College and Dallas College sign pact to work together to fill the north Texas region's high-demand careers. 

• There’s a new location for Fort Worth's city hall and a new process for receiving developmental services there, including building permits.

Announcements: 

• Tarrant To & Through Partnership: Names David Saenz Senior Education Advisor.

• Lena Pope Home: Foundation Relations & Grant Writing Associate Elizabeth Hammond announced she was leaving.

• Ranchbot Marketing Solutions: Adds Allison Hocking as Reseller Relationship Manager.