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TWU is also spending $70,000 for its security officers to patrol the new shopping district.

FORT WORTH - It looks like an old Texas ghost town but that's about to change for the 3,000 block of Rosedale in Fort Worth.

The city is pouring millions of dollars into the historic old storefronts, across the street from Texas Wesleyn University.

Paul Meadows can fix just about anything at Burge Hardware.

But just outside his Rosedale store there is blight, and that's something he can't fix.

The hardware store has been in this location for 94 years, one of two stores left on the block.

"This is one of the only urban areas in the hole United States that does not have any kind of hamburger stand, no burger King. Nothing. And there's a problem with that," said Meadows.

Problem solver? Maybe $3.5 million will do the trick. A private/public partnership is underway to renovate the old 3000 and 3100 blocks of Rosedale across from Texas Wesleyn University by next fall.

"That's a good investment. That's a great investment," said Meadows.

The biggest part of this revitalizaion is that the TWU bookstore will move from it's current location in the center of campus to an old restaurant on Rosedale. The strategy is that once students come off campus to shop at the bookstore, they will also shop at other businesses that might move in.

One building will be turned into an art gallery with a coffee shop and it will house part of the TWU business school.

"They're trying to do what TCU did with the Barnes & Nobles," said Kathleen Hicks, Fort Worth's Mayor Pro-Tem.

TWU is also spending $70,000 for its security officers to patrol the new shopping district.

"Already we've seen a change in that area, we've seen violent crime drop precipitously, and quite frankly, that's what's helped is bring that new development," Hicks said.

E-mail dmiles@wfaa.com.