The Dallas Morning News
May 13, 2007
The coming week’s issues in Grand Prairie, southwest cities and Ellis County:
GROUP WHEN, WHERE TOPICS TO KNOW MORE
LANCASTER CITY COUNCIL 7 p.m.
Monday in City Hall, 211 N. Henry St. Hear a presentation from Leslie Jutzi, director of government affairs and community relations for the Allen Group; conduct a public hearing on the use of fiscal year 2007 Community Development Block Grant Funds. Call 972-218-1300 or visit www.lancastertx.com.
Kansas City Business Journal
May 10, 2007
BNSF Railway Co. finalized land purchase and pre-development agreements for an intermodal hub and logistics park near Gardner.
San Diego-based industrial developer The Allen Group now has exclusive rights to buy and develop 579 acres of the 997-acre site. BNSF will keep the remaining 418 acres for its intermodal facility, planned for a 2009 opening.
Logistics Park-Kansas City will be BNSF’s third logistics park project of that size, BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said Thursday.
BNSF’s Logistics Park-Chicago is very similar to the Gardner project, Forsberg said, and has grown the fastest in volume of any intermodal hub on the BNSF lines. The current 45-acre Kansas City, Kan., intermodal has ranked second in volume growth.
The Allen Group plans to build about 7 million square feet of speculative warehousing and distribution center space on the site, Bill Crandall, president of Allen Development of Kansas, said recently.
“Kansas City is in sort of a prime position for developers like The Allen Group because, other than one recently announced 600,000-square foot speculative distribution center, there are no others on the market,” he said. “We’re getting an inventory of distribution centers ready for market.”
The companies announced their partnership in October.
Logistics Park-Kansas City is expected to attract a $1 billion investment, create 13,000 jobs and generate $30 billion in new sales revenue in Kansas in 20 years.
The Kansas City Star
May 10, 2007
BNSF Railway Co. has finalized its agreements with the firm that will develop the distribution and warehouse facilities at its proposed rail-hub center in Gardner.
The Allen Group, a San Diego-based industrial development firm, has completed land purchase rights and pre-development agreements with the railroad, which is building an intermodal facility in Gardner.
BNSF and the Allen Group originally announced their partnership last October.
BNSF currently owns 997 acres at the project site. The railroad will use 418 acres to build its intermodal facility, and the Allen Group will have the right to buy the remaining 579 acres for the development of facilities to surround the rail-truck terminal. The development is called Logistics Park-Kansas City.
The massive rail-truck hub project’s total investment is expected to exceed $1 billion and is expected to create up to 13,000 area jobs over a 20-year-period.
BNSF expects to open its Gardner intermodal hub in 2009. The railroad has similar operations in the Chicago and Fort Worth areas.
PacificShipper
May 4, 2007
Is Dallas-Fort Worth really big enough for two major multimodal transportation centers? The inauguration of the 6,000-acre Dallas Logistics Hub east of the city places the North American logistics spotlight squarely on Texas and issues a challenge to the 12,000-acre Alliance Global Logistics Hub, 50 miles away in Tarrant County.
The Allen Group, developer of the new hub, officially opened the site for development on April 13 and days later granted BNSF Railway the right to purchase land in its site to develop an intermodal terminal. It expects its first two industrial buildings to be completed by year’s end.
To Jon Cross, head of marketing at The Allen Group, events such as the expansion of several Mexican seaports, the planned widening of the Panama Canal, the reported shift of container imports from West Coast to Gulf and East Coast ports and Texas’s position in the center of the continent “puts Dallas dead center for worldwide trade.”
That’s not news to Hillwood, developer of the Alliance Global Logistics Hub. “We compete against projects across the United States for major distribution deals,” said David Pelletier, Hillwood director of communications. “We’re used to that.”
Dallas is one of three major U.S. metropolitan areas, along with Los Angeles and Atlanta, seeing explosive growth as distribution and logistics hubs for shipping into the world’s largest consuming market, said Richard Armstrong, chief executive of Armstrong & Associates.
“The population has shifted south, and (Dallas) is sitting right there in the middle of it,” Armstrong said.
The North Texas area for decades was a center of banking, real estate and energy interests, though a series of economic shocks in the late 1980s and early 1990s — an oil price crash, real estate bust and the savings and loan debacle — forced government and business leaders into a reassessment of the region’s industrial prospects.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, federal and state governments invested hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade and expand the major highways north-south (U.S. 75 and Interstate 35 East and West) and east-west (Interstate 20 and State Highway 121, and the President George Bush Turnpike), as well as regional airports.
North Texas gained from Gulf Coast port growth that lured Wal-Mart to build a 4 million square-foot distribution center near Houston at Baytown, Texas. Cross said the Dallas Logistics Hub will benefit from Union Pacific’s $100 million, 360-acre intermodal facility along I-45 and a proposed 300-acre BNSF facility on nearby land owned by The Allen Group.
“We focused on Dallas because the intermodal piqued our interest,” Cross said. A $30 million pledge of support by the city of Dallas and master plans being drawn up by nearby Lancaster Airport to support airfreight distribution, as well as proximity to Texas’s proposed NAFTA Highway linking Mexico with Canada through the United States, persuaded San Diego-based Allen Group to set its stakes south of Dallas three years ago. But can the Metroplex (as the Dallas-Fort Worth area is known locally) support nearly 30 square miles of distribution and transportation-oriented development? “We are very confident that the Dallas Metroplex can,” Cross said.
Pelletier isn’t so sure, at least when it comes to government support. Alliance is pursuing a runway extension to better serve airlines from Europe and Asia. Hillwood wants state and federal authorities to upgrade I-35W as it runs through Alliance, and to consider improvements to the I-35W/I-820 interchange north of Fort Worth.
Finite funds, Pelletier said, should go to projects with proven track records such as Alliance, which has attracted more than 140 companies, most focused on distribution, and generates $28 billion in the regional economy. “Dallas Logistics Hub doesn’t even have a building on it right now,” Pelletier said.
Cross said the new hub will have space for as much as 60 million square feet of distribution, manufacturing, office and retail development.
Commercial Property News
April 24, 2007
The Allen Group has promoted Daniel McAuliffe to president of Allen Development of Texas. In his newly appointed position, McAuliffe will manage The Allen Group’s Texas operations, including overseeing the development of the Dallas Logistics Hub, with over 6,000 acres master-planned for the development of 60 million square feet of distribution, manufacturing, office and retail uses. McAuliffe will also be responsible for working directly with the BNSF Railway Co., coordinating efforts with local, county and state officials for entitlements and annexation.
The Dallas Morning News
April 20, 2007
The developer of the Dallas Logistics Hub has reached an agreement with a unit of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. that gives the Fort Worth based railroad the right to buy land within the transportation development in southern Dallas County.
BNSF said it is still evaluating whether to develop an intermodal facility at the logistics hub being developed by The Allen Group, a San Diego-based developer.
The railroad also underlined its commitment to its existing intermodal operation in Fort Worth’s Alliance development.
“BNSF believes metroplex growth patterns and geography may warrant its participation in the Alliance and Dallas facilities in order to best serve its customers,” the company said.
Backers say the 6,000-acre Dallas Logistics Hub is a huge growth opportunity for North Texas, as soaring trade with Asian countries and just-in-time supply chain management spur demand for transportation services.
The hub is in southern Dallas County, with easy access to Interstates 20, 35E and 45. Union Pacific Corp. opened a terminal there in 2005.
“If BNSF uses its option and constructs an intermodal facility here, it would be the first logistics park in North America to house two intermodal facilities operated by the two largest U.S. freight rail carriers,” said Edward Romanov, president and chief operating officer of The Allen Group.
Competition between the Dallas Logistics Hub and the 11,600-acre Alliance development is expected to increase, analysts said. But if trade grows as quickly as expected, the two rivals could both prosper.
“Naturally there’s going to be competition,” said Terry Pohlen, director of the Center for Logistics Education and Research at the University of North Texas. “However, when you really look at the amount of growth that’s projected for the region, you need the capabilities. Overall, it’s going to mean more business.”
The Journal of Commerce
April 19, 2007
The Allen Group announced that it has signed an agreement granting BNSF Railway the right to purchase land within the new Dallas Logistics Hub for possible development of an intermodal facility.
Under the terms of the agreement, BNSF has the option to purchase a minimum of 387 up to a maximum of 530 acres of land for construction of an intermodal ramp.
Allen, a national developer of logistics parks and commercial properties headquartered in San Diego, said the Dallas site under consideration fronts 8,000 feet of BNSF track, of a total 2.5 miles of BNSF track frontage within the Hub.
The center is a 6,000 acre master-planned logistics park located in Southern Dallas County, with 60 million square-feet of development potential and rail-ground-air access.
TrafficWorld
April 19, 2007
The Allen Group announced that it has signed an agreement granting BNSF Railway the right to purchase land within the new Dallas Logistics Hub for possible development of an intermodal facility.
Under the terms of the agreement, BNSF has the option to purchase a minimum of 387 up to a maximum of 530 acres of land for construction of an intermodal ramp.
Allen, a national developer of logistics parks and commercial properties headquartered in San Diego, said the Dallas site under consideration fronts 8,000 feet of BNSF track, of a total 2.5 miles of BNSF track frontage within the Hub.
The center is a 6,000 acre master-planned logistics park located in Southern Dallas County, with 60 million square-feet of development potential and rail-ground-air access.
Commercial Property News
April 19, 2007
The San Diego-based Allen Group and BNSF Railway Co. announced a deal this week to build an intermodal facility at the Dallas Logistics Hub. Under the terms of the agreement, BNSF will buy between 387 and 530 acres at the hub, a 6,000-acre master planned logistics park in southern Dallas County.
“They now have the rights to purchase that land to build an intermodal facility,” Jon Cross, The Allen Group’s director of marketing, told CPN today. “They have a due diligence period to evaluate and study that area and see if it’s efficient (for an intermodal facility). We feel pretty confident that it will be the perfect location for them.”
The site BNSF may take fronts 8,000 feet of track in the city of Dallas and is part of 2½ miles of BNSF track within the Dallas Logistics Hub. If BNSF constructs an intermodal facility there, Cross said, the hub would be the first logistics park in North America to house two intermodal facilities.
CPN reported last November that BNSF was in talks with The Allen Group to acquire several hundred acres within the logistics hub, which will serve as an inland port for distributing goods to the central and eastern United States, and has up to 60 million square feet of development potential. Last Friday, about 1,000 people attended the park’s grand opening ceremony.
The Allen Group announced at the event that construction will begin in June on two speculative industrial buildings for delivery by the end of the year. The two buildings will total 640,000 and 210,000 square feet. “Our hope is to go after that user looking for a 200,000- or 600,000-square-foot deal, but we can also set it up for multiple users,” Cross said.
Cross said the company is also creating a cost calculator for the park’s Web site, that will allow potential users to analyze distribution cost savings from the park to any one of Dallas’ submarkets.
The master-plan for the hub includes business-class hotels, restaurants and single- and multi-family housing in addition to warehouse, distribution and light manufacturing facilities. In sum the property is expected to increase the tax bases of the municipalities of Dallas, Lancaster, Wilmer and Hutchins by $2.4 billion.
The Allen Group specializes in developing rail-served industrial parks and build-to-suit facilities, and currently has over 8,000 acres of land under development, including a BNSF intermodal logistics park in Kansas City.
Market Watch
April 18, 2007
SAN DIEGO, Apr 18, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Allen Group, a major developer of logistics parks and commercial properties throughout the United States, announced they have executed an agreement granting BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) the right to purchase land within the Dallas Logistics Hub as the next step in evaluating the possibility of a new intermodal facility at this location.
The agreement was executed and announced last Friday by Edward Romanov, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Allen Group, during the Dallas Logistics Hub Grand Opening Ceremony in front of 1,000 attendees in Southern Dallas County.
Under the terms of the agreement, BNSF has the option to purchase a minimum of 387 up to a maximum of 530 acres of land within the Dallas Logistics Hub for construction of an intermodal facility. The site under consideration fronts 8,000 feet of BNSF track in the City of Dallas and represents a portion of the 2.5 miles of BNSF track frontage located within the Dallas Logistics Hub.
“We are pleased to finalize this agreement providing BNSF Railway the opportunity to possibly extend its intermodal network with a facility at the Dallas Logistics Hub,” said Edward Romanov, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Allen Group. “If BNSF uses its option and constructs an intermodal facility here, it would be the first logistics park in North America to house two intermodal facilities operated by the two largest U.S. freight rail carriers.”
The Dallas Logistics Hub, developed by The Allen Group, is a 6,000 acre master-planned logistics park located in Southern Dallas County. With 60 million square feet of development potential and comprehensive rail-ground-air access, the Dallas Logistics Hub will serve as a major inland port for the distribution of goods to the major population centers of the Central and Eastern United States.