North Texas e-News

UNT Dallas Campus Sets 2006 Golf Tournament to Benefit its Scholarship Fund

May 18, 2006

The University of North Texas Dallas Campus is seeking golfers to play in its annual tournament to raise funds for students who attend classes in UNT’s southern Dallas facilities.

The 2006 UNT Dallas Campus Scholarship Golf Classic — sponsored by The Allen Group, a San Diego-based commercial development firm that specializes in rail-served industrial parks and build-to-suit facilities — will run from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Tangle Ridge Golf Course in Grand Prairie on June 30 (Friday).

The tournament will begin with a shotgun start at noon. According to Dr. John Price, UNT vice provost for the Dallas Campus, money raised at the tournament will go directly to much needed scholarships for Dallas Campus students.

“Last year’s tournament raised over $33,000 that was dedicated to our scholarship fund,” he said.

Interested area golfers can sign up (PDF file) for $175 per person or $700 for a team of four. The fees include lunch, dinner and eligibility for prizes. Registration also includes carts, green fees, a gift bag and driving range balls.

The Allen Group recently opened a Dallas office and is now making a major investment in southern Dallas County with its Dallas Logistics Hub project. The Hub, a future center for worldwide trade, is a major industrial park.

The Ellis County Press

Intermodal Pushes Wilmer Growth

May 5, 2006

With 10,000 acres available for commercial development Wilmer has become a developer’s dream since the Union Pacific Railport was opened late last summer.

In recent months, three developers have bought almost 7,000 acres planning to turn them into distribution centers to serve Fortune 500 companies like Wal-Mart, Target and others. Prime Rail Developer Mike Rader was responsible for securing the land along Interstate 45 in Wilmer and Hutchins where the intermodal facility was constructed. “All the developers needed a push and the push came from the intermodal facility,” Rader said. “Prior to the intermodal there was no reason for them to come here.”

Developers envision the southern Dallas County region booming with commercial, office and retail growth. The California-based Allen Group purchased 4,500 acres of prime real estate and are negotiating the purchase of 1,500 more acres along Interstates 20, 45 and 35 in Wilmer, Hutchins, Lancaster and Dallas for their Dallas Logistics Hub.

“Our park can be reached by all these major highways,” Marketing Director John Cross said.

Development of their property in the southern Dallas County area could take 40 years while bringing 35,000 jobs to an estimated 60 million square feet of property including a high-end hotel, office and retail space on Interstate 20.

Specializing in constructing facilities near intermodal sites on the west coast, much of the company’s Interstate 45 property will be developed for multi-million distribution centers.

Cross said Dallas is the ideal spot for new commercial growth because Asian importers want to get their merchandise to consumers faster bypassing California’s backlogged loading docks.

Houston’s port has become increasingly busy as ships unpack shipping containers onto the railways sending their merchandise to the intermodal facility on Interstate 45. The containers are then loaded onto flatbed 18-wheelers to be driven across the United States to distribution centers and retailers. “Dallas literally becomes the hub of transportation,” Cross said.

Rader purchased another 430 acres along Pleasant Run Rd. for his Sunridge Business Park which he said could easily become eight million square feet of distribution center space creating 2,500 jobs within seven years. It is not known at this time how another 190 acres he purchased will be utilized, but Rader said he does plan to clean up the gravel pit.

Dallas’ Argent Group has purchased 300 acres for their Dalport Business Park and has been annexed into Wilmer, according to Wilmer City Administrator Thom Lauer.

Commercial Property News

$100M Mixed-Use Project Planned Near Bakersfield Airport

May 5, 2006

The San Diego-based Allen Group, a commercial real estate developer specializing in industrial and office space, is planning a roughly $100 million mixed-use project on 107 acres in Kern County, Calif., adjacent to Meadows Field Airport seven miles from downtown Bakersfield. The development will feature flex space, service-oriented retail, Class A office space and a hotel component.

A master plan for the Allen Group’s Kern County development should be completed in four to six months, said Larry Montgomery, director of development for the company’s central California division. Land for the project was purchased roughly a year ago for approximately $13 million.

While the Allen Group works on a master plan for its Kern County project, the Meadows Field Airport is doing its own 20-year master plan, Montgomery said. The airport, one of the fastest growing airports in the western U.S., opened a new facility, the William M. Thomas Terminal, in February.

None of the Allen Group’s land for the Kern County project will be sold off, “but we may do a development in partnership with a user, such as a nationally-recognized hotel operator,” Montgomery explained, adding that the retail, flex and office space will be rental property. “In the last three to five years, Central California (including the Bakersfield area) has been experiencing healthy growth in residential, commercial and industrial development,” he added. In fact, California’s Central Valley has a growth potential over the next 20 years reminiscent of the growth potential in the Inland Empire 20 years ago.

The growth in the Central Valley is made possible by the availability of low cost land, not just farmland. “Historically, a lot of land near the airport has been used to support the oil business,” Montgomery noted. For example, oil storage facilities have been quite common in this area, but today some of this land is being converted into commercial and industrial buildings.

The Bakersfield California

Mixed-use building planned next to Meadows Field

5 May 2006

A large commercial development firm has announced plans for a 107-acre mixed-use office, industrial and retail development adjacent to Meadows Field.

The Allen Group, which is headquartered in San Diego and has offices in Bakersfield, Visalia and Dallas, plans a blend of office space, lodging, industrial uses, airport-related businesses, dining and retail options.

“We see a great opportunity at the airport with the new terminal opening up,” said Luke Allen, director of corporate development for The Allen Group.

“We think that area is going to fill up.” The proposal is part of a larger picture of growth that will drastically change the face of the area surrounding the airport. Assuming developers are able to clear rezoning and other hurdles, open fields will soon be replaced by everything from hotels and stores to warehouses.

“As you take dirt that’s farmland and develop it, that’s an obvious change,” said Kern County airports director Ray Bishop, who will present a master plan covering the airport’s next two decades to the county Board of Supervisors on June 20. “In the next 20 years we expect this all to be developed.” The parcel is at the southwest corner of 7th Standard Road and Airport Drive, across from the entrance to the new terminal.

The land was purchased from two local families about a year ago for about $14 million, according to Larry Montgomery, The Allen Group’s Bakersfield-based Central California director of development.

Allen said his company probably would have eventually bought land at the airport, but plans for the $36 million William Thomas Terminal, which opened in February, were “a catalyst.” Allen said the land will need to be rezoned and his company will need to procure various permits before construction can begin.

The Allen Group expects to finish up a master plan for the development within two months. Meadows Field has 34 flights a day with direct service from the new terminal to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Houston.

Teresa Hitchcock, an analyst and marketing manager with the county Airports Department, said international flights out of the old terminal could start as soon as late fall, when the customs facility is complete.

The Allen Group has completed several local projects, including the International Trade and Transportation Center in Shafter and office buildings in Bakersfield, such as the University Square building on K Street downtown.

“Bakersfield is one of our key markets,” Allen said.

The Bakersfield Californian

Project Readies for Takeoff

May 4, 2006

A large commercial development firm has announced plans for a 107-acre mixed-use office, industrial and retail development adjacent to Meadows Field.

The Allen Group, which is based in San Diego and has offices in Bakersfield, Visalia and Dallas, plans a blend of office space, lodging, industrial uses, airport-related businesses, dining and retail options.

“We see a great opportunity at the airport with the new terminal opening up,” said Luke Allen, director of corporate development for The Allen Group. “We think that area is going to fill up.”

The proposal is part of a larger picture of growth that will drastically change the face of the area surrounding the airport.

Assuming developers are able to clear rezoning and other hurdles, open fields will soon be replaced by everything from hotels and stores to warehouses.

“As you take dirt that’s farmland and develop it, that’s an obvious change,” said Kern County airports director Ray Bishop, who will present a master plan covering the airport’s next two decades to the county Board of Supervisors on June 20. “In the next 20 years we expect this all to be developed.”

The parcel is at the southwest corner of 7th Standard Road and Airport Drive, across from the entrance to the new terminal.

The land was purchased from two local families about a year ago for about $14 million, according to Larry Montgomery, The Allen Group’s Bakersfield-based Central California director of development.

Allen said his company probably would have eventually bought land at the airport, but plans for the $36 million William Thomas Terminal, which opened in February, were “a catalyst.”

Allen said the land will need to be rezoned and his company will need to procure various permits before construction can begin.

The Allen Group expects to finish up a master plan for the development within two months. Meadows Field has 34 flights a day with direct service from the new terminal to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Houston.

Teresa Hitchcock, an analyst and marketing manager with the county Airports Department, said international flights out of the old terminal could start as soon as late fall, when the customs facility is complete.

The Allen Group has completed several local projects, including the International Trade and Transportation Center in Shafter and office buildings in Bakersfield, such as the University Square building on K Street downtown.

“Bakersfield is one of our key markets,” Allen said.

TrafficWorld

Allen Group Builds Outside Inland Empire

3 May 2006

The Allen Group, a developer of rail-served distribution and logistics parks, finished construction on a new, 288,000-square-foot building at the International Trade and Transportation Center in the southern San Joaquin Valley, Calif., as an alternative to burgeoning Inland Empire markets nearby.

The Allen Group hopes to take advantage of relatively lower wages, a larger labor pool and affordable housing in the southern San Joaquin, compared with more mature markets in the Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles. More than 35 million consumers live within a 300-mile radius of the ITTC, the developer said.

The ITTC, a 700-acre master planned logistics park, is a designated Free Trade Zone and is affiliated with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Target operates a 1.7 million square foot warehouse and distribution center at the ITTC; Hillman Fasteners and State Farm Insurance also work from there. The development is served by BNSF Railway and offers access to I-5 and State Highway 99.

The new facility was designed for dock-side rail service. It features 48-foot-high, 9-foot-by-10-foot doors, a panelized roof system and skylight coverage in warehouse areas.

Focus Daily News

Lancaster in Golden Rectangle

May 3, 2006

“We’re in the Golden Triangle,” Lancaster Chamber President Joe Johnson said Thursday when introducing the economic development panel at the chamber’s monthly membership luncheon. The “Golden Triangle” lies within the boundaries of I-35, I-20, I 45, and the future Loop 9. It is located along the east historic NAFTA Trade Corridor and is west of the proposed Trans-Texas 35.

The economic development panel consisted of Dan McAuliffe, Gary Anderson, and C.E. Doc Cornutt.

McAuliffe was recently named the Allen Group’s Vice President of Development to manage the daily operations of the Dallas Logistics Hub. In 1998, McAuliffe led the design and creation of RailPort, a 1,700 acre, dual rail served industrial development south of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. From 1998 through 2005, he coordinated the construction of more than $60 million of public infrastructure and rail facilities for RailPort.

Anderson, Managing Director, ProLogis, is responsible for capital deployment and development in the Central Region, comprising Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, and in the Mexico Region, comprising Monterrey, Juarez, Reynosa and Tijuana. Prior to his current position, Anderson held Market Officer responsibilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington and Oregon, and for the western Mexico cities of Tijuana and Juarez. He also had responsibility for developing ProLogis’ global expansion strategy.

Cornutt serves as Chairman and CEO of Argent Property Company, an organization he founded in 1997 in partnership with an affiliate of Hunt Realty Corporation in Dallas, leading that organization in developing and investing in strategically located business/industrial parks, industrial properties and industrial portfolio companies.

All three me Cornutt said that the reality of the University of North Texas Dallas campus, the development of the Port of Dallas, and the construction of the I-20 service road create retail and commercial development opportunities along I-20.

Lancaster’s Campus District north of I-20 proposes mixed multifamily residential with retail outlets to service the UNT Dallas community.

McAuliffe said that the Dallas Logistics Hub project, between the Lancaster Airport and the Union Pacific Intermodal Facility in Wilmer and Hutchins began about two years ago when Allen Group founder and CEO bought 2,500 acres.

“He caught the fever,” McAuliffe laughed. “We’ll soon have about 6,000 acres.” He said that the development will be a long process, with a projected 30-year build-out. “It’s going to take teamwork and cooperation. We have to deal with four different cities and four different master plans.”

The Logistics Hub will eventually have $2.7 billion in assessed value to add to the tax rolls, and will eventually create 35,000 new jobs.

Anderson said that ProLogis’ is developing a 204-acre, $100 million, 3.1 million square foot distribution campus at Interstate 20 and Houston School Road in Lancaster.

The NAFTA Trade Corridor was given a Congressional High Priority Corridor designation for the Dallas NAFTA Trade Corridor was achieved in the surface transportation reauthorization bill signed by the President in July 2005 and will increase the amount of amount of federal funding for this trade corridor.

The DNTC is the result of the efforts by the River of Trade Corridor Coalition (ROTCC), which was created by Dallas to combat the Texas Trade Corridor 35, which will bypass Dallas. ROTCC currently includes more than 40 members along the NAFTA trade route, including members in Arkansas and Tennessee.

The ROTCC Congressional Caucus was also created and now includes and now includes 10 members of Congress whose districts encompass the NAFTA Trade route and who were effective in achieving the Congressional High Prior Congressional High Priority Corridor designation.

The Ellis County Press

Lancaster Airport Set for Expansion

April 28, 2006

As the southern Dallas County area continues to boom with commercial growth, the Lancaster airport is trying to keep up.

Assistant City Manager Jan Belcher said an expansion would allow the airport to accommodate larger corporate jets, which needed longer runways to land and take-off.

“We can take some of the largest business jets,” Belcher said noting the airport would be able to accommodate dual-wheel Gulf Stream 5 planes when the development was complete.

Two small corporate jets were already flying executives into the airport. According to a recent study conducted by city officials, executives driving from the Lancaster Airport could arrive at the Central Dallas Business District quicker than if they had driven from Love Field due to the light flow of traffic in the southern Dallas County region.

“They come here because we have easy transportation to wherever they want to go,” Belcher said.

The 306-acre municipal airport would use a $ 8.8 million grant from the Texas Department of Transportation Aviation Division to expand the runway to 6,500 feet from its current 5,000 feet and overlay the existing runway to accept heavier planes.

Environmental assessments, engineering studies and at least 100 more acres must be purchased on the south-end before any groundbreaking could actually begin, as 90 percent of the project would be paid using federal funds.

The city would be required to match 10 percent of the grant using local money.

Regional leaders were also interested in the airport’s growth as the River of Trade Corridor Coalition and the Dallas NAFTA Trade Corridor were looking to develop another cargo airport on eastern edge of the metroplex.

Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport, developed by Ross Perot Jr. in the early 1990s, was the only cargo airport currently serving the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Mesquite’s Metro Airport was another facility being considered as a cargo airport.

Dallas Councilman Bill Blaydes, who serves as chairman of the Dallas NAFTA Trade Corridor, said Lancaster would be an ideal location for another cargo airport due to its close proximity to Interstates 45, 20, 35 and the Union Pacific Intermodal Rail port in Wilmer-Hutchins.

“It is definitely sitting there in first place because it is so close to major intermodals,” Blaydes said. Both airports have the opportunity to eventually expand their runways up to 10,000 feet since they are surrounded by farming land, Blaydes said.

As a waiting list was filling up there was additional space surrounding the airport to allow more hangers to be constructed.

New water and sewer lines were expected to be installed to serve the south end of the airport during the next few months using $107,425 divided equally among the Lancaster Economic Development Board and the city’s water/sewer fund, Belcher said.

Dallas Business Journal

Next Big Thing

April 28, 2006

In the mid-1980s, Ross Perot headed north of Dallas and began developing what has since evolved into one of the area’s premier office parks.

The 2,665-acre Legacy, in Plano, is a major corporate hub for companies such as Frito Lay Corp., JC Penney, Dr Pepper/Seven Up and AT&T Wireless. It also boasts a bustling retail and residential component called Legacy Town Center. All in all, more than 36,000 people live and work in Legacy.

Also in the mid-1980s, Perot’s son, Ross Perot Jr., began work on AllianceTexas in north Fort Worth. What started as a 2,000-acre commercial park surrounding the world’s first industrial airport has blossomed into a massive 17,000-acre mixed-use development that sprawls across four cities. Its 65 square miles contain 24.4 million square feet of commercial space and 5,200 single-family homes.

Three new projects are under way that will add more than 5 million square feet of retail space.

As commercial development begins to pick up in North Texas again, the Dallas Business Journal decided to take a look at two emerging projects following in the footsteps of Legacy and AllianceTexas and poised to become the next big thing.

Mercer Crossing

Mercer Crossing is sitting pretty. Nestled in the triangle created by Interstates 35-E and 635 and the President George Bush Turnpike, the 1,100- acre development offers two vital benefits, access and visibility.
With plenty of trees, a lake and the Elm Fork of the Trinity River meandering through it, it also provides a lush, green environment.

Dallas real estate investor Gene Phillips began assembling land for Mercer Crossing in the mid-1990s, starting with a 275-acre parcel and ultimately pulling together 40 additional tracts.

R.L. Lemke oversees the project for Phillips’ company, Prime Asset Management.

“It will be very similar to Legacy but located in the middle of town,” Lemke said. “We’re five miles from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and five miles from Love Field.”

The initial focus has been office, with Hickory Centre, a three-building, 425,000-square-foot complex. Work is under way on the first residential component, Laguna Vista, a 208-unit apartment complex on the south side of Interstate 635. At full build out, Mercer Crossing will contain 7,000 housing units, millions of square feet of office space, schools and retail stores.

Because of its key location, and because so much time was spent assembling the tracts, Prime Asset is being very picky about who gets to build what on the land, Lemke said.

“We have turned down a significant number of buyers,” he said. “We have a vision for this property and we’re not going to deviate from it. We’re not in a hurry.”

Mercer Crossing will have two major components– a corporate campus perimeter surrounding a mixed-use town center. The development extends into parts of Dallas, Carrollton and Irving, but the bulk of it falls within Farmers Branch, which has agreed to use form-based zoning, a New Urbanism alternative to conventional zoning.

“It falls back on the type of zoning from the mid- 1800s that brought us urban landscapes in our major cities that we so cherish today,” Lemke said. “The beauty of it is the city gets the very best for its citizens and the developer gets to react instantly to market conditions. Form-based zoning provides protection for residents by dictating what the streets will look like, as well as the pedestrian and public areas, but what use we put to the property beyond the front door is of our own choosing.”

What Prime Asset is going for is a combination of for-rent and for-sale residential, office, retail and hotel space.

The city of Farmers Branch has created a $160 million Tax Increment Finance district to help support the development of Mercer Crossing. It covers the majority of the undeveloped land on the property and includes $60 million of infrastructure work, said Norma Nichols, the city’s director of economic development.

“It’s a true public-private partnership,” she said. “Over time, Mercer Crossing could generate $1 billion worth of value for the city of Farmers Branch. We’re very excited about the potential. We think it represents a large percentage of our future tax base.”

Dallas Logistics Hub

The Allen Group is a month away from unveiling site plans for Dallas Logistics Hub. But the massive southern Dallas County project is already acting as a magnet, drawing interest to that area.

Several developers, including Duke Realty Corp, are moving to control acreage there for new facilities.

And “The Hub,” as the San Diego-based The Allen Group calls it, is growing as well. The company has already closed on 4,500 acres for the project and is close to acquiring land that will push the total to 6,000 acres, said Jon Cross, company spokesman. It could easily top 6,500 acres, he added.

The development surrounds a $100 million Union Pacific Railroad Co. (NYSE: UNP) intermodal facility, located in Wilmer and Hutchins in southern Dallas County. The 360-acre truck and rail yard, called the Dallas Intermodal Terminal, opened in September 2005.

The Dallas Logistics Hub will include an industrial park and about 500 acres of land for residential development. It’s just two miles south of Interstate 20, a key trucking corridor, and is also close to Interstate 35 and Interstate 45, which links the development with the Port of Houston.

Air access will be provided by the nearby Lancaster Municipal Airport, which plans improvements to better handle increased business.

The Dallas Logistics Hub has a lot in common with AllianceTexas. Both include highway and airport access, a railroad intermodal yard and room for major distribution centers, warehouses and other commercial uses.

No doubt the Dallas Logistics Hub is “the biggest thing in the Dallas industrial market,” said Dan Cook, senior director of global supply chain solutions for Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.

“It’s huge. The only thing that you can compare it to is Alliance.”

The development has a lot going for it, Cook said.

It adds a major intermodal location to South Dallas, one that will help companies trim transportation costs. The long-term scope of the project will also have a ripple effect, as other services follow the industry and jobs there.

Today Newspaper: Lancaster

That’s $2.4 Billion, With a ‘B’

April 20, 2006

“Huge tracts of land.”

The city of Lancaster is not in some Monty Python skit, offering “the biggest tracts of open land in Britain,” but it does have plenty of open land. And it’s getting “married off” to two sets of developers, one being the Argent Property company in conjunction with ProLogis, and the other being The Allen Group.

The Argent-ProLogis group has started work on a 204-acre, $100 million business park at the northeast corner of Danieldale and Houston School roads. Lancaster drivers who see 30 or more pieces of earthmoving equipment kicking up dust are seeing the groundwork for that site underway.

The Allen Group has bought 4,500 acres of land in Lancaster, Dallas, Hutchins and Wilmer for a planned 6,000-acre, $2.4 billion – billion with a “b” – business park which will generally be north and northeast of Lancaster airport.

“Grooms” from the three companies were the guests of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce at its April membership luncheon April 13.

All three were visionary at times in their comments about how they thought this would affect Lancaster in particular and the southern part of the Dallas side of the Metroplex in general.

Dan McAuliffe of The Allen Group spoke first, and immediately struck that visionary tone.

“We’re glad to be here in the community with such a great project that will change southern Dallas forever,” he said.

“Richard Allen saw the Union Pacific intermodal facility and saw enough that he decided a 2,500-acre investment would be good.”

Well, that 2,500-acre investment has now expanded to 4,500 acres of land being bought, with plans for nearly 1,500 acres more by the time the company is done.

McAuliffe cautioned that the company’s buildings wouldn’t spring up immediately.

“We’ve got four cities, four transportation master plans, four master land use plans and four zonings to try to manage. It’s not going to be built out overnight,” he said.

In addition to the UP facility, McAuliffe said The Allen Group was excited about the possibilities of how the Lancaster Airport might boost its business. Gary Anderson, managing director of ProLogis, spoke next.

ProLogis is a leading provider of distribution facilities and services, with more than 1,990 facilities owned, managed and under development in 72 markets throughout North America, Europe and Asia. It is partnering with Argent Property in the development of its “small” 200-acre business park.

He, too, hit the vision note to start.

“In all my travels, I’ve seen very few opportunities as good as this one. This is going to be the jewel of all our property in Dallas,” he said. “Over the past 20 years, there’s been a lot of talk about this section of Dallas. It’s time for action.”

And, speaking of action, that crown jewel is already starting to be formed and faceted.

Last month ProLogis and Argent started earthwork n their site; a casual eye can count more than 30 pieces of earthmoving equipment there. Anderson provided more details of the companies’ timetable.

“Over the next 60 days, we will start our first inventory building, a 650,000-square-foot spec building,” he said. “Somewhere in the area of 8-9 months we’ll open up.”

Anderson later said he did not have any outside prospects yet lined up as tenants, but added, “Within our portfolio, there are prospects.” Doc Cornutt, CEO of Argent Property, wrapped up the session.

“(Our site) will be one of the jewels in the ProLogis network,” he said. “These buildings have all the bells and whistles.”

He then listed four reasons why Argent was in Lancaster. They were that the area was path of good speed for transportation, good distribution speed for products, good transportation infrastructure and good logistics.

Both he and Anderson mentioned the fact that major railroads such as Union Pacific now offered guaranteed shipping times, as compared to years ago, that boosted the importance of having good rail connections as well as highway connections for trucking. He noted that Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. were, respectively, the country’s No. 1 and No. 2 ports for containerized shipping, and if combined as one, would be the world’s fifth-largest port in terms of overall shipping. He said being close to the UP terminal in Hutchins, with its connection to the Southern California ports, was vital. Cornutt finished by saluting local leadership.

“This only happens with the leadership of the cities. Y’all have jumped off the high dive, and it’s going to be successful,” he said.