The facility will go up on 14 acres of a 216-acre land bank held by Southwest Sports Group for future development around the Texas Rangers' baseball stadium. The short list also contained a site in CentrePort, owned by the Newport Beach, CA-based Koll Development.

At yesterday's announcement ceremony, corporate officials said the facility initially will house 600 workers, close to the same head count at its existing facility. The headquarters, expected to deliver in November 2003, will go up on a parking lot at the Ballpark in Arlington.

Siemens Dematic has been part of the Arlington landscape for 43 years and is ranked as one of the city's largest employers so the bait to stay most likely was substantial. The incentive package goes before council next week for final action.

Siemens existing headquarters at 2910 Avenue F in the Great Southwest Industrial Park is part of a leased quartet of buildings, totaling 550,000 sf, in Arlington. The plan eventually is to consolidate some Siemens sites in the 14-state network, which includes an American headquarters in New York City. Officials, though, are still huddling over just how much will be transferred to Arlington.

The Siemens headquarters will anchor a mixed-use venue that is being viewed as a catalyst for development for Southwest Sports Group's raw land, a "wish list" for some as a downtown replacement in a suburb that's grown to nearly 400,000 residents due to positioning midway between Dallas and Fort Worth.