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.