FORT WORTH -- Texas Christian University has received $2.5 million to endow scholarships in honor of former Fort Worth Mayor Bob Bolen.
Click here to read the full article.
As it reached its 20th anniversary on Dec. 14, AllianceTexas has had a $36.4 billion economic impact on North Texas. The 229 companies that now call the development home have built 31.2 million sq ft and created 28,000 jobs. Since the development began, the companies and residents of the AllianceTexas also have paid more than $730 million in property taxes, including more than $105 million in 2008.
Fort Worth Alliance Airport opened on Dec. 14, 1989 as the world’s first industrial airport and the centerpiece of an Alliance development that initially was designed to attract air cargo and aerospace manufacturing facilities. The subsequent addition of the BNSF Intermodal Facility on the west side, along with the existing Union Pacific mainline to rail serve buildings on the east side of the development, as well as the FedEx Sorting Hub, created an inland port intermodal logistics hub that is now the prototype for similar projects across the country.
As the project continued to grow and become more diversified with the addition of office, residential, entertainment and retail, Hillwood rebranded the development as AllianceTexas, which now includes several developments, residential communities and a town center.
The Alliance Global Logistics Hub for the third consecutive year was named the nation's top foreign trade zone by the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone Board.
About $5.4 billion worth of foreign-made products passed through the local, general-purpose zone last year, according to the board's annual report to Congress. That surpasses the $4 billion admitted through the second-place Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
"You have an airport and two rail lines and a highway [Interstate 35W], which is huge in distribution circles," said David Pelletier, a spokesman with Hillwood, the developer behind the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development.
The foreign trade zone helps lure companies to AllianceTexas, Pelletier said. The designation allows companies to import products before U.S. customs inspections are made and pay no duty until the products leave the foreign-trade zone.
"It's just one more cost-savings measure that helps you attract companies into the development," Pelletier said.
Hillwood officials expect the value of products passing through the zone to grow as ATC Logistics & Electronics continues to operate after setting up shop in 2009. The company provides repair and assembly services for GPS and cell phone manufacturers and providers.
Other companies with operations at the foreign trade zone include Motorola, Lego and Hyundai.
Since opening Fort Worth Alliance Airport -- considered the centerpiece of AllianceTexas -- Hillwood has watched companies flock to the development. Proximity to the world's first industrial airport, which opened in 1989, not to mention major freeways and rail lines, has made AllianceTexas a major player not only for attracting corporate tenants, but for enriching the local economy.
No fewer than 15 of the Northwest school district's top 20 taxpayers are within AllianceTexas. For the current budget year, Citicorp Technology stood as the top AllianceTexas taxpayer, providing the school district $157,571,000 in taxable assessed valuation. But the district's top taxpayer overall is Devon Energy Production Co. , which provided $1,172,741,570 during the same period. Devon has no operations at AllianceTexas.
Other AllianceTexas companies on the list span several industries, with Cardinal Health 411 representing health care; Bell Helicopter Textron, Peregrine Point and AT&T Mobility representing commercial and industrial; and Cabela's Retail TX representing retail.
Of the $3,820,463 in commercial property listed on the school district's 2009-2010 taxable property breakdown, the lion's share of the property value is within AllianceTexas.
"Out of the $3.8 billion, quite a bit would be Alliance," said Jon Graswich, the district's chief financial officer.
Cousin’s Bar-B-Q is planning to open a 4k SF location at Heritage Marketplace at Alliance Town Center in north Fort Worth after the building is completed in the fall. It will be the company’s seventh location. Located at the southwest corner of Heritage Trace Parkway and Riverside Drive, Heritage Marketplace is also home to the new 123k SF Kroger Marketplace, which will open in the 4Q10. Also scheduled to open this year at Alliance Town Center are Rooms To Go, BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, and Olive Garden.
Cousin’s Bar-B-Q leased a 4,200-square-foot building from Hillwood at Heritage Marketplace at Alliance Town Center in north Fort Worth. The new Cousin’s location is expected to open after the building is completed in fall 2010 and will serve as the company’s seventh location.
Located at the southwest corner of Heritage Trace Parkway and Riverside Drive, Heritage Marketplace at Alliance Town Center also is home to the new 123,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace, which will open in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Also scheduled to open this year at Alliance Town Center are Rooms To Go, BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, and Olive Garden.
Cory McCord served as broker for Cousin’s Bar-B-Q in the transaction.
Cousin's Bar-B-Q catered the Dec. 14, 1989, opening celebration of Fort Worth's Alliance Airport, and this fall it will become a permanent tenant.
Cousin's has leased a 4,200-square-foot building at Alliance Town Center, off Interstate 35W in far north Fort Worth. The building is under construction at the southwest corner of Heritage Trace Parkway and Riverside Drive and should be completed this fall.
FT. WORTH-According to the recently released Annual Report of the Foreign-Trade Zones Board to the US Congress, the Board issued 47 formal orders during the 2008 fiscal year. The decisions included approvals for one new general-purpose zone and 20 new subzones.
Authority was also granted for the expansion of 10 existing general-purpose zones. Other actions included six expansions of the scope of manufacturing activity, as well as six approvals for new manufacturing activity in zones.
There were 164 FTZ projects fully active during the year, with subzones in operation in more than 100 of them. The number of facilities using subzone status during the year was 254.
The combined value of shipments into general-purpose zones and subzones totaled over $692 billion, compared with $502 billion the previous year. General-purpose sites received nearly $75 billion in merchandise, while total shipments received at subzone sites amounted to over $617 billion. Some 89% of zone activity took place at subzone facilities, which is consistent with the pattern of the past 15 years. Exports to foreign countries from facilities operating under FTZ procedures totaled over $40 billion.
Nearly 330,000 people were employed at some 2,500 firms that operated under FTZ procedures during the year. Industries that continued to account for most zone manufacturing activity included the oil refining, automotive, pharmaceutical and electronic product sectors. About 57% of the shipments received at zones involved domestic status merchandise.
For the third consecutive year, Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone #196 in Fort Worth, TX ranked as the top general purpose Foreign-Trade Zone in the US in terms of the value of foreign goods admitted, which accounted for $5.357 billion.
Located at the inland port-known as Alliance Global Logistics Hub-FTZ #196 should continue to grow with the 2009 addition of ATC Logistics & Electronics, which is leasing close to one million square feet and employing 2,600 workers at its Alliance facilities.
The port is part of Hillwood-developed AllianceTexas, a 17,000-acre master-planned, mixed-use community that includes Alliance Town Center, the Monterra Village apartment home community, the corporate campuses of Circle T Ranch, the Vaquero estate golf community and the Heritage and Saratoga residential communities. AllianceTexas now houses 7,200 single-family homes and 229 companies that occupy 31.2 million square feet.
In large part due to its role in handling imports, AllianceTexas has had an economic impact of $36.4 billion on the North Texas economy. In addition, the development has attracted $6.8 billion in private investment, generated more than $730 million in property taxes and created 28,000 fulltime jobs. Theres even a 9,400-acre international transportation complex, dubbed Alliance Airport.
We anticipate that the use of the Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone will allow us to realize significant cost savings for our customers, says Antony Francis, president of ATCLE. As we grow and gain a better understanding of how effective it can be, we expect to expand our use of the Foreign-Trade Zone in order to provide the best cost structure to our customers.
In addition to ATC Logistics & Electronics, major users of Foreign-Trade Zone #196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub include Hyundai, Trans-Trade, LEGO and Motorola.
Restaurant Returns Two Decades After Catering Opening Event Of
Fort Worth Alliance Airport
FORT WORTH, Texas (Feb. 3, 2010) – AllianceTexas recently reached its 20th anniversary. Now one of the companies that was part of the airport’s opening celebration two decades ago will open a permanent location in the development. Cousin’s Bar-B-Q, which catered the original airport lunch on Dec. 14, 1989, has leased a 4,200 square-foot building from Hillwood at Heritage Marketplace at Alliance Town Center in north Fort Worth.
The new Cousin’s Bar-B-Q is expected to open after the building is completed in the Fall 2010. It will be the company’s seventh location.
“Cousin’s Bar-B-Q was at the Alliance opening 20 years ago, when there wasn’t anything there except the airport,” said Jeff Payne, CEO of Cousin’s Bar-B-Q. “Now there are 28,000 employees in the development and thousands of new homes in the area. After searching throughout North Texas, Cory McCord, our real estate broker, determined that this is a great location for many reasons, including the great business environment that Hillwood has created there even during tough economic times. Retailers at Alliance Town Center have done extremely well, while retailers in other places have struggled.”
Since 1983 Cousin’s has been serving up Texas-style Bar-B-Q with all the “fixins” for thousands of customers and several dignitaries, including President H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. Last May, Cousin’s Bar-B-Q was named one of four finalists in the ABC Good Morning America “Best Barbecue Challenge.” The restaurant also was named one of the top 50 Bar-B-Q Joints in the state by Texas Monthly magazine in 2008.
Located at the southwest corner of Heritage Trace Parkway and Riverside Drive, Heritage Marketplace at Alliance Town Center is also home to the new 123,000 square-foot Kroger Marketplace, which will open in the fourth quarter of 2010.
A joint development of Trademark and Hillwood, Alliance Town Center is located along the east side of Interstate 35W between North Tarrant Parkway and Heritage Trace Parkway. The 300-acre development is in the middle of one of the fastest growing areas in the nation over the past decade. Many restaurants and stores already have reached sales levels that are among the best for their respective companies.
More than 20 retailers occupy more than 600,000 square feet at Alliance Town Center. In addition to Cousin’s Bar-B-Q and the Kroger Marketplace, retailers include Bank of Texas, Belk, Best Buy, Cheddar’s, Dress Barn, Eye Masters, Freebirds World Burrito, Hobby Lobby, Jason’s Deli, JCPenney, Justice, Kincaid’s, Kirkland’s, Mattress Firm, McDonald’s, PetSmart, Rack Room, Rue 21, Sam Moon, Smoothie King, Sports Clips, Ulta, Wells Fargo, and Which Wich.
Alliance Town Center is part of the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development that also includes the Alliance Global Logistics Hub, the corporate campuses and golf courses of Circle T Ranch, the Monterra Village apartment home community, and the single-family communities of Heritage, Saratoga and Vaquero. AllianceTexas houses more than 7,200 single-family homes and 229 companies that have built more than 31 million square feet and created 28,000 jobs.
# # #
FORT WORTH (Hillwood) – For the third consecutive year, Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone #196 ranks as the top General Purpose Foreign-Trade Zone in the United States in terms of the value of foreign goods admitted.
In the recently released Annual Report of the Foreign-Trade Zone Board to the U.S. Congress, Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone #196 admitted nearly $5.4 billion in foreign products.
Use of Foreign-Trade Zone #196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub should continue to grow with the activation by ATC Logistics & Electronics in 2009. ATC Logistics & Electronics handles assembly, repairs and logistics for GPS and cell phone manufacturers and providers. The company leases close to one million sf and employs 2,600 workers at its Alliance facilities.
Other major users of Foreign-Trade Zone #196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub include Hyundai, Trans-Trade, LEGO, and Motorola.
For the third consecutive year, Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone #196 ranks as the nation's top General Purpose FTZ in the value of foreign goods admitted ($5.4 billion). Harris County ranked third nationally with $4 billion; Dallas 15th with $679 million; and DFW Airport 23rd with $379 million. FTZs are secure areas under the supervision of US Customs and Border Protection and are considered outside the US customs territory for duty payment until imports enter domestic consumption; then the importer may choose paying duties on the original foreign materials or the finished product. There’s a high school algebra question in there somewhere.
ATC Logistics & Electronics prez Antony Francis says using the FTZ will allow significant cost savings for customers. ATCLE opened in 2009, leasing 1M SF. The firm assembles, repairs, and provides logistics for GPS and cell phone manufacturers and providers. Besides ATC, major users of FTZ #196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub include Hyundai, Trans-Trade, LEGO, and Motorola.
More than $5.3 billion worth of goods came into the U.S. in 2008 through the foreign trade zone at Alliance in far north Fort Worth, ranking it No. 1 in the country for the third consecutive year, according to a new government report.
The Alliance Global Logistics Hub has again topped the list of best-performing U.S.-based free trade zones. The list rates FTZs by the value of foreign goods admitted.
The Fort Worth Alliance trade zone admitted $5.357 billion in foreign products in the year 2009.
This is the third year in a row that the hub ranks first in the nation as a foreign free trade zone, according to a new report compiled by U.S. Congress.
The 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development was developed by Hillwood, a Perot company.
Other top ranked foreign-trade zones in Texas include No. 3 ranked Harris County (or Houston), which recorded a foreign trade value of $3.7 billion; and No. 5 ranked El Paso, which posted $1.2 billion in foreign trade value.
Contact: David Pelletier (817/224-6044)
dave.pelletier@hillwood.com
FORT WORTH, Texas (Jan. 27, 2010) – For the third consecutive year, Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone #196 ranks as the top General Purpose Foreign-Trade Zone in the United States in terms of the value of foreign goods admitted. In the recently released Annual Report of the Foreign-Trade Zone Board to the U.S. Congress (www.ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage/annualreport/ar-2008.pdf), Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone #196 admitted $5.357 billion in foreign products.
Utilization of Foreign-Trade Zone #196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub should continue to grow with the activation by ATC Logistics & Electronics in 2009. ATC Logistics & Electronics handles assembly, repairs and logistics for GPS and cell phone manufacturers and providers. The company leases close to a million square feet and employs 2,600 workers at its Alliance facilities.
“ATCLE anticipates that the use of the Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone will allow us to realize significant cost savings for our customers,” said Antony Francis, president of ATCLE. “As we grow and gain a better understanding of how effective it can be, we expect to expand our use of the Foreign Trade Zone in order to provide the best cost structure to our customers. ATCLE appreciates Hillwood’s diligence in providing a low-cost operating environment at Alliance and working closely with us to establish our Foreign-Trade Zone status.”
In addition to ATC Logistics & Electronics, major users of Foreign-Trade Zone #196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub include Hyundai, Trans-Trade, LEGO, and Motorola.
TOP U.S. GENERAL PURPOSE
FOREIGN TRADE ZONES
By Value Of Foreign Goods Admitted
(in millions $)
1. Fort Worth/Alliance (Texas)... $5,357
2. Newark/Elizabeth (N.J.).............. 4,060
3. Harris County (Texas)................. 3,775
4. Port Hueneme (California).......... 3,063
5. El Paso (Texas)........................... 1,200
6. Harrison County (MS)................. 1,168
7. Jacksonville (Florida)................... 1,101
8. Long Beach (California)............... 1,067
TOP TEXAS GENERAL PURPOSE
U.S.
Rank
1. Fort Worth/Alliance ...... $5,357 1
2. Harris County.................... 3,775 3
3. El Paso.............................. 1,200 5
4. Ellis County.......................... 995 9
5. Brownsville........................... 987 10
6. Dallas.................................... 679 15
7. McAllen................................ 456 19
8. DFW Airport......................... 379 23
Foreign-trade zones are secure areas under the supervision of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They are considered outside the customs territory of the United States for the purposes of duty payment. Under zone procedures, the usual formal customs entry procedure and payment of duties are not required on the foreign merchandise unless and until it enters U.S. Customs territory for domestic consumption, in which case the importer normally has a choice of paying duties either on the original foreign materials or the finished product. Foreign-trade zone sites and activities remain within the jurisdiction of federal, state and local governments and agencies.
In large part due to its role in handling imports, AllianceTexas has had an economic impact of $36.4 billion on the North Texas economy. In addition the development has attracted $6.8 billion in private investment, generated more than $730 million in property taxes and created 28,000 fulltime jobs.
In addition to the Alliance Global Logistics Hub, the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development includes Alliance Town Center, the Monterra Village apartment home community, the corporate campuses of Circle T Ranch, the Vaquero estate golf community, and the Heritage and Saratoga residential communities. AllianceTexas now houses 7,200 single-family homes and 229 companies that occupy 31.2 million square feet. Approximately 60 companies at AllianceTexas are ranked on the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes List of Top Private Firms.
Hillwood, (www.hillwood.com) a Perot company, is ranked as one of the top commercial real estate developers in the country and the top residential developer in Dallas-Fort Worth. Close to 80 companies listed on either the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes List of Top Private firms have chosen to locate in Hillwood developments. In addition to the AllianceTexas project, Hillwood is best known for its development of American Airlines Center and the Victory mixed-use district near downtown Dallas and AllianceCalifornia near Los Angeles.
Alliance residents will be getting a new hospital close to home in late 2011.
Texas Health Resources plans to build a full-service hospital off Golden Triangle Boulevard, east of Interstate 35W.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for this fall with service beginning in late 2011 and construction complete by 2012. The hospital is expected to include an emergency room, acute-care inpatient beds, outpatient and surgical services, and offices.
The site, at 10001 Old Denton Road in Fort Worth, was chosen to meet the needs of residents in the Alliance area, one of the fastest-growing communities in North Texas, said Barclay E. Berdan, senior executive vice president of system alignment and performance at Texas Health Resources.
"They really don’t have great access to hospital and ambulatory services, and we thought this was a great opportunity to match up with the population up there," he said.
The new hospital will serve residents from Keller to east of Eagle Mountain Lake and northward about halfway to Denton. Initially, the facility will be a little smaller than Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital H-E-B and larger than Texas Health Azle.
Texas Health Resources bought 40 acres at the southwest corner of Old Denton Road and Golden Triangle Boulevard from Hillwood, Alliance’s developer, in mid-December, deed records show.
The deal involved swapping land that the health care company bought from Hillwood more than a decade ago. In 1999, Texas Health Resources bought 35.8 acres in the Circle T Ranch, east of U.S. 377 and along Alliance Gateway in Westlake. In December, it traded the Westlake land for the property about five miles south in Fort Worth.
After considering the distance that Alliance residents must travel for hospital care in Fort Worth’s medical district, the new site was better, Berdan said.
"We keep track of everything from drive times to rooftop counts, and it’s taking longer and longer for people to drive south down I-35," he said.
Mark Miller, Hillwood’s vice president of retail, said the hospital and ancillary services will be a "great boon" for the area. Alliance residents have long asked for more and closer medical services.
The facilities could also draw other businesses to Alliance, such as restaurants, to meet work-force needs.
Texas Health Resources approached Hillwood about six months ago, indicating that the company would rather have a site near I-35W, Miller said.
"Having one of the bigger players make a move, it’s going to be great," Miller said.
Not too far away, on I-35W and North Tarrant Parkway, HCA Health Services of Texas owns 73.5 acres where it has planned to build a hospital and medical offices.
The company, part of Nashville-based Hospital Corp. of America, first bought 60 acres in January 2003 and later acquired 13 acres near North Tarrant Parkway and Old Denton Road, just south of Alliance Town Center.
"We don’t have anything concrete yet ready to announce," said Randy Moresi, CEO of North Hills Hospital, an affiliate of HCA. "We’re still studying the situation."
But the area is a fantastic growth engine for Tarrant County, he said.
"There’s no question that the north part of Fort Worth through the Alliance area is going to be an incredible population generator for a long time," he said.
Texas Health Resources, which is based in Arlington, operates 14 hospitals, including the Harris Methodist hospitals, Presbyterian in Dallas and Arlington Memorial.
We had the bright idea of not just chronicling these important moments, but getting the people who made the moments happen to write about them. This proved to be a Herculean task, but our efforts paid off. What other city magazine in America could get no fewer than seven billionaires to contribute to such an undertaking?
11
AllianceTexas Reshapes the West
By Ross Perot Jr.
The AllianceTexas program is halfway through its 40-year plan, and is only 40 percent developed. But its impact has already been felt: 220 companies, 31 million square feet of commercial real estate, 28,000 jobs, 7,100 single-family homes, one new highway (Texas Highway 170, which connects Alliance to DFW Airport), and on and on. Expect all those numbers to keep rising during the coming years.
This is why the rich get richer: they constantly see opportunity where others see only obstacles. Ross Perot Jr. didn’t have AllianceTexas in his mind when he began buying land north of Fort Worth in 1983. He knew only that it was cheaper to buy there than it was in Dallas at the time. Or maybe he just doesn’t have a strong sense of smell.
Part of the reason the land north of Fort Worth was so readily available was that in the past the prevailing winds from the south brought the smell of the stockyards north and made living in that area extremely unpleasant. Although by the early 1980s the stockyards had been closed for years, that general perception still remained.
In the mid-1980s, the Federal Aviation Administration was looking for reliever airports around DFW Airport. When they approached us about putting one of these airports on our property north of Fort Worth, we decided to talk to some of the local aerospace companies about their future needs and any suggestions as to what type of airport should be built. The response we received was that the area needed a full-size airport that could accommodate any size jet. It would be one designed primarily for aerospace manufacturing and air cargo uses. We shared the idea with the FAA and the city of Fort Worth, which both saw the value of creating an airport-anchored project that would have more of an economic impact on the area than a small reliever airport.
Ironically, the first deal that was done at Alliance was rail related. While the runways were under construction, we were approached by Santa Fe Railroad, now BNSF Railway, about purchasing land to build a facility to offload automobiles from trains, adjacent to its mainline on the west side of the development. This led to the realization of the importance of rail, along with the airport and Interstate 35W, in creating a multimodal inland port logistics hub.
The intermodal concept became even more refined when the Hillwood team worked with BNSF to build one of the country’s largest intermodal facilities, where containers filled with goods from Asia arrive by train via the West Coast ports. Those goods then are transferred from train to truck and transported to a nearby distribution center and eventually to other regions of the United States.
Alliance is now the prototype for the inland port logistics hubs, which became more prevalent as manufacturing moved overseas. The development is the busiest Foreign-Trade Zone in the country, admitting $7.46 billion in foreign products, which is almost twice as much as the next busiest U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone.
Ross Perot Jr. is chairman of Hillwood Development Company. He is also a founder and former president and CEO of Perot Systems, where he served as chairman until its purchase by Dell last year.