Bedford ran out of empty land a long time ago. The city covers about 10 square miles in northeast Tarrant County, and by the Handbook of Texas count it went from roughly 20,800 residents in 1980 to about 44,000 in 1990. The Census Bureau’s July 2025 estimate is 47,958. Nearly every building you’d lease or buy here has been built, occupied, and reworked at least once.
That decides what the work looks like. A Bedford project is usually a second-generation suite on Airport Freeway or Central Drive, a clinic, or a house from the 1970s or 1980s that needs a new kitchen, bath, or room. We’re a general contractor based at 7950 Legacy Drive in Plano, about 40 minutes away, and we build both, commercial first.
We haven’t built in Bedford yet, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Our closest finished job is Pizza Twist in Irving, a 2,000-square-foot franchise restaurant we built out in 6 to 8 weeks while the restaurant kept serving customers, with the work phased around its service hours.
Airport Freeway, Central Drive, and the rest of the map
Through most of Bedford, SH 183 and SH 121 run together as Airport Freeway, until SH 121 splits off. TxDOT’s North Tarrant Express project rebuilt 13 miles of I-820 and SH 121/183 between October 2010 and October 2014, adding TEXpress lanes, frontage roads, and auxiliary lanes. Plenty of Bedford’s office and medical space faces those frontage roads.
Parc Plaza at 1305 Airport Freeway is a good example. In 2026 a vein clinic renovated a 3,126-square-foot existing suite there, according to its state accessibility registration. Somebody else’s old suite, gutted and reworked for a new tenant. That’s the typical Bedford deal.
Ground-up retail is rare, and the biggest new piece sits at the city’s east entrance. The Market at Gateway, on land the City bought and resold for redevelopment at the northwest corner of North Industrial Boulevard and Airport Freeway, brings a 23,443-square-foot Sprouts set to open in October 2026, plus two 10,500-square-foot retail and restaurant buildings that stay spec until they’re leased. Beside it, Gateway Village is 106 townhomes by David Weekley. Nothing Bundt Cakes registered its 1,695-square-foot suite there as a first-generation tenant finish-out.
Central Drive and Harwood Road carry the neighborhood retail. Bedford’s comprehensive plan, approved in September 2024, ties a proposed Meadows District to the commercial centers at Harwood and Central and to a 60-acre school district tract on Harwood that the plan calls one of the largest remaining open spaces in the city. On Central, a 2,690-square-foot space at Bedford Central Mall is registered to become a white box shell for a future tenant, and at Oaks at Central Park, 1600 Central Drive, a 12,255-square-foot ambulatory surgery suite is being renovated and relicensed.
Medical is Bedford’s deepest bench. Bedford, Hurst, and Euless set up a hospital district together in 1969, and today Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford sits at 1600 Hospital Parkway as a Level III trauma center. The comprehensive plan wants the area around the hospital to grow into a more cohesive campus. Medical tenants turn up again and again in the state’s accessibility registry for Bedford: Cook Children’s has registered a 4,955-square-foot pediatric clinic renovation on Tibbets Drive that keeps the space in the same business occupancy.
In the wedge between the two highways after they split, the plan proposes an employment district, and it’s starting. On Forum Parkway a developer has registered two shell buildings of 62,000 and 42,000 square feet with truck courts.
Two more places to watch. At Brown Trail and Bedford Road, the owner of Stonegate Shopping Center registered a 7,000-square-foot metal pavilion for a food court with kiosks, restrooms, and dining. The comprehensive plan had already singled out that corner:
“Architecture at the intersection appears aging and worn, but it also offers the perfect setting for a ‘vintage’ reset.”
Bedford’s comprehensive plan, on the Stonegate District.
Then there’s Bedford Commons, about 30 acres between E.M. Bilger Boulevard and Parkwood Drive beside the municipal center. The City and Midway Development Group parted ways, and the site is now on a City-led, phased plan: single-family homes on the east side first, commercial later, as the market and the area’s tax increment reinvestment zone allow. If you want a restaurant there, plan on a long wait.
In Bedford, second-generation space is the default
When a city hasn’t had open land for decades, almost every lease is for space somebody else built out. That can save you money. It can also hide trouble: ductwork laid out for a different tenant, plumbing in the wrong corner, ceilings and finishes from the 1980s.
Here’s one that comes up. A veterinary practice wants a former retail bay. The building code puts animal hospitals and kennels in the business occupancy group, the same group as a doctor’s office, while a store is mercantile. So the drawings have to show the new use, and Bedford’s commercial checklist asks for the use and occupancy classification on every plan set. The vet also needs what the store never had: a sink in each exam room, drains where animals get bathed and kenneled, walls that take disinfectant every day, and more exhaust.
The City’s own records show how often this happens. Bedford’s 2025 certificate of occupancy list sorts new businesses by type, and “medical or veterinary services” sits right beside retail and office, including two suites at 1312 Norwood. Our medical and wellness build-outs and tenant improvements pages lay out the scope.
The closest thing in our portfolio is Calibration Brain & Body in Frisco, a 4,250-square-foot wellness and media studio conversion we finished in five expedited weeks, with a podcast studio, acoustic panels, and a custom front desk.
Own an older center? Bedford’s Retail Center Revitalization program reimburses 25 percent of exterior improvement costs, up to $20,000, plus up to half of sign work, capped at $5,000. It’s for multi-tenant centers more than 20 years old with vacancy at or above 50 percent, and the façade budget has to reach $20,000. Work done before the City approves the design isn’t funded. Apply first, build second.
Bedford’s building stock, wave by wave
Bedford built itself in waves. It voted 55 to 20 to incorporate in 1953, partly so Hurst or Euless wouldn’t swallow it, and stretched from two square miles to just over ten by 1960. Then it filled in: 2,706 residents in 1960, 10,049 in 1970, 20,821 in 1980, 43,762 in 1990.
Tarrant Appraisal District records show it street by street. The houses we looked up in Stonegate Addition and Crestview Addition were built from 1959 to 1961. Harwood Terrace Addition’s date from 1972 and 1973, Forest Ridge Addition’s from the mid-1970s. Shady Brook Townhouse Addition went up around 1980, Sunny Meadows Addition in 1982 and 1983, Woodhill Addition in 1984. Newer infill is the exception: Villas of Forest Ridge from 2003 and 2004, and Gateway Village under construction now.
Commercial buildings followed the rooftops. The Handbook records an industrial park, shopping centers, and restaurants arriving in the 1970s, with the big growth spurt running from the late 1970s into the mid-1980s. So a lot of Bedford’s strip retail and low-rise office is likely 40 to 50 years old.
Age shows up on the permit. Bedford’s commercial checklist requires an asbestos survey of every area you’ll renovate or demolish, filed with the permit application. In buildings from that boom, order the survey before demolition gets priced, not after the walls are open.
Permits, plan review, and the CO in Bedford
The Building Inspections Division at 1805 L Don Dodson Drive reviews plans, issues permits, and inspects building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire, and energy work. Applications, payments, and, since July 1, 2023, every inspection request go through the City’s OpenGov portal.
Contractor registration comes before any permit. Every contractor working in Bedford registers with the City and renews each year; homeowners working on their own homestead are exempt. There’s no statewide general contractor license in Texas, so this registration and the permit history are the records to check.
Bedford is on the 2024 International Codes for building, residential, mechanical, plumbing, fuel gas, energy, and pool and spa work, plus the 2023 National Electrical Code, adopted with regional amendments by an ordinance the council passed in November 2025. One local amendment people miss: suite numbers must be at least 4 inches tall, building numbers at least 8.
The commercial plan review checklist sets the bar for drawings:
- Sealed by a Texas registered architect, engineer, or interior designer where state law requires one
- Submitted as PDFs named by sheet, with electronic as-builts at the end of the job
- Turned away if marked “not for construction” or “for pricing only”
- A TDLR project number for commercial work valued over $50,000
- A room finish schedule with flame spread and smoke development ratings
- The use and occupancy classification, and whether the use needs a specific use permit
- Separate Fire Department permits for sprinkler, alarm, and suppression systems
What Bedford’s certificate of occupancy takes
Every commercial business in Bedford needs a certificate of occupancy: new owners, name changes, moves, and expansions included. The City’s CO information sheet lists $210 in fees, $75 for the building inspection, $60 for the Fire Marshal, and $75 to release utilities. Your electric and gas applications are only good for 20 days, so the City asks you to wrap up the CO inside that window.
“All furniture and fixtures must be in place prior to the inspection.”
City of Bedford, certificate of occupancy information sheet.
That one line moves the schedule. Shelving, millwork, and equipment have to be installed before the building inspector, the Fire Marshal’s office, and, for a food business, Tarrant County Public Health come out, and all of them must approve before you open. We schedule deliveries backward from that inspection date.
Food businesses add Tarrant County
A restaurant, cafe, or market in Bedford also answers to Tarrant County Public Health. The county’s food establishment plan review application asks for the menu, a spec sheet for every piece of equipment, a floor plan drawn no smaller than 1/4 inch to the foot, and schedules for finishes, plumbing, lighting, and ventilation. Grease interceptors and backflow devices get registered separately with Bedford Public Works. Our restaurant construction page covers how we sequence food jobs.
The Fire Marshal’s part
The Fire Marshal’s Office handles CO inspections, Knox box installations, and plan reviews, and the fire department inspects every business in Bedford once a year under the International Fire Code and regional amendments. For alarm and sprinkler work, the City’s fire permit rules put the burden on the contractor: finish all pretesting, call for the acceptance test at least 24 hours ahead, keep the permit and plans on site, and bring enough people to run it. The fire marshal comes to witness the test, not to run it.
Remodeling a 1970s or 1980s Bedford home
Most home remodeling in Bedford starts with a house that’s had 40 or 50 years of use. In a 1973 Harwood Terrace house or a 1983 Sunny Meadows house, the kitchen often still has its first layout, with closed-off walls, a soffit over the cabinets, and lighting that was never enough. Kitchen remodeling there usually means a new layout, cabinets, counters, and real task lighting. Baths from those years tend to be small, so bathroom remodeling is about getting more from the same footprint. When it’s everything at once, a whole-home remodel under one schedule beats three separate jobs.
Bedford’s permit rules reach further than people expect. The City’s permit guide says structural remodels need a permit, including drywall work and flooring that goes down to the subfloor. Replacing windows or exterior doors takes a miscellaneous permit even at the same size, and a size change means a remodel permit. Residential foundation repair needs a permit and plans stamped by a licensed engineer.
Turning the patio into a sunroom
A lot of owners want the back patio to become a real room. Bedford treats a patio enclosure as a room addition, so it needs an addition permit, while a garage conversion needs a remodel permit. The City has also amended its residential code so a garage can’t open directly into a bedroom.
The residential plan review checklist asks for sealed drawings, a property survey, an engineered foundation plan, the exterior masonry percentage, and energy code compliance, and a surveyor-sealed form survey has to be on site for the plumbing rough inspection. A glass room lives or dies on the energy review, so we settle the glazing before the drawings go in. More on home additions here.
Two Bedford landmarks
Old Bedford School
The brick schoolhouse at the top of this page is the Old Bedford School at 2400 School Lane. The Bedford Common School District finished it in July 1915 on a $5,000 bond. HEB ISD closed it in 1969, and in 1973 the City bought the building and 13 acres for $72,000. In January 1991 a fire believed to have started on the second floor, where police records were stored, took the roof, the second-floor walls, and the interior finishes.
The City spent more than $500,000 putting back the original floor plan and exterior, adapted to current code and accessibility rules, and the school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. A new roof followed in 2018. The detail a builder notices: the brick walls came through the fire with relatively minor damage, but the original parapets were partly removed.
St. Vincent’s Cathedral
St. Vincent’s was founded as a parish in 1955 and moved to its Bedford site in 1989. The brick church is built in a stripped modern Gothic style, and its tall bell tower is the part you remember. It became a cathedral in 2007, and in April 2009 it hosted the inaugural assembly of the Anglican Church in North America.
Working with MASACO on a Bedford job
We start by walking the suite or the house with you, then show you 3D renderings before anyone talks price. The proposal that follows is fixed in scope and organized by trade, with every allowance written out. During construction you get one project manager and a written photo update each week, and we handle the Bedford permit filings and coordinate the Fire Marshal’s tests and the county’s food review where they apply. At the end you get a close-out package with as-builts, permits, inspection records, the CO, and warranties, and we stay reachable after that. The process page walks through each step.
Leasing a suite off Airport Freeway, moving a clinic near Hospital Parkway, or finally enclosing that patio? Book a consultation. We’ll walk it with you and come back with a plan you can hold us to.
Building in Bedford: what to know.
Bedford covers about 10 square miles in northeast Tarrant County and grew from 10,049 residents in 1970 to 43,762 in 1990, so most of its houses and shopping centers went up in the 1970s and 1980s and most projects here are remodels and second generation finish-outs. Commercial space lines Airport Freeway (SH 183 and SH 121), Central Drive, Harwood Road, and Brown Trail, with medical offices around Texas Health HEB on Hospital Parkway. The City of Bedford Building Inspections Division at 1805 L Don Dodson Drive issues permits and certificates of occupancy under the 2024 international codes.
Bedford neighborhoods and districts.
- Stonegate Addition
- Crestview Addition
- Harwood Terrace Addition
- Forest Ridge Addition
- Shady Brook Townhouse Addition
- Sunny Meadows Addition
- Woodhill Addition
- Villas of Forest Ridge
- Gateway Village
- The Market at Gateway
- Bedford Commons
- Stonegate Shopping Center
- Harwood Road and Central Drive
- Hospital Parkway
Bedford on the map.
Open Bedford, TX in Google Maps
Photo credits
- BedfordSchool1 (1 of 1).jpg by Renelibrary, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Big Lots Bedford Texas 2019 12 29.jpg by Smarty9108, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- OldBedfordSchool.jpg by Lepuscalifornicu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- St. Vincent's Cathedral - Bedford, Texas 02.jpg by Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
