No Stopping Allen Growth

ALLEN, TX—It’s no secret Allen is growing. And, Allen has been steadily putting in place the amenities that will attract the relocation of the next Fortune 1000 headquarters. With more than $400 million in projects unveiling in 2018, Allen is moving into the next stage of its evolution.

An example of that growth is the new Collin College Technical Campus, which broke ground last week. Completion of the center is slated for summer 2020.

The campus is a 360,000-square-foot facility specializing in high-demand technical workforce education. The project’s original plans have been expanded under an Allen ISD and Collin College partnership that allows for additional classroom and lab space for dual credit classes for Allen High School students. The Allen economic development corporation is also a partner on the project.

“The Allen ISD contributed $12 million toward a 40,000 square-foot addition to the facility, which will include classroom and lab spaces to facilitate collaborative programs with the college,” Tom Delamater, chief public relations officer, Collin College District, tells GlobeSt.com. “The location in Allen, adjacent to Highway 121, is central to the four major cities in Collin County–Allen, Frisco, McKinney and Plano. We are working closely with the ISDs in those cities to implement the programs at the Technical Campus, including our expanding dual credit offerings, i.e., courses taken for both high school and college credit.”

When completed, the campus will feature a 42,000-square-foot shared classroom and dual credit building for Allen ISD, a 151,000-square-foot academic building for classrooms, administration, common spaces and student services, and a 23,700-square-foot conference building with meeting rooms and a full conference center. The campus will also include a 177,646-square-foot trade building for technical and trade classrooms including open lab spaces, mechanical electrical and plumbing shops, welding shops, auto shops, carpentry shops as well as campus support areas. In addition, the campus will include an underground parking garage for approximately 600 cars.

McCarthy Building Companies Inc. was awarded the project in late 2017, and is the construction manager at risk for all pre-construction and construction services.

“The Collin College Technical Campus and the dual credit center will have a tremendous impact on students in Allen ISD and the preparedness of our future workforce,” said Ray Sedey, McCarthy’s southern region president. “McCarthy is ideally suited to build complex technical educational facilities and our team is excited to work on something that has intrinsic synergies to our industry. Wouldn’t it be great if one day students from this campus would apply their knowledge and skills at McCarthy?”

The campus will feature a central green space for students and will utilize a low site impact design to fit the contours of the 32-acre site and integrate the campus into the existing forested greenbelt area. The project will also use renewable resources with a solar PV system for electrical and a solar hot water system, condensate reclaim system, rainwater harvesting and daylight harvesting to utility usage. Construction in general is booming in Allen, as it is across North Texas. There are numerous residential, retail and office projects underway in Allen and throughout Collin County.

“The Allen ISD is nearing completion of a STEAM Center, which is Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics, adjacent to the property where the Technical Campus is being built,” Delamater tells GlobeSt.com. “A major urban village development, an 80-acre project known as Stacy Green, is underway 3 miles east of the Technical Campus construction site.”

Allen’s proximity to technology companies, access to a tech workforce and business-friendly environment combine to make it appealing for technology companies involving both software and hardware. With about 3,000 technology companies and nearly 230,000 high-tech employees, the Dallas Fort-Worth area is one of the nation’s largest technology centers with specialties in semiconductors, computer and electronics manufacturing, information services, professional technical services, aerospace and life sciences, according to the city of Allen.

Companies in the tech sector located in Allen include Frontier Communications and CVE Technology.  Frontier alone employs more than 700 people in the community. The telecom corridor is 10 minutes south along US-75 in Richardson/Plano, including a number of major campuses for companies such as Cisco, Fujitsu Network Communications and Samsung Mobile.

Allen’s combination of multiple fiber providers and redundant power have also led to a concentration of both enterprise and co-location data centers. AT&T, Experian, Cisco and TierPoint have data center facilities located here. Recently, CyrusOne broke ground on a data center park that could exceed $1 billion in investment when complete on 66 acres.

In addition, Allen has been the home of a major office of industry leader Experian since the early 1990s. The Ireland-based company operates its southern regional office in Allen, from where it provides credit services, marketing services, decision analytics and consumer services.

Allen has a cluster of financial services firms including Jack Henry & Associates, Forte Payment Systems and Northwestern Mutual. Jack Henry & Associates is an S&P 400 company that develops, markets, and supports integrated data processing systems for in-house automation of standard banking and accounting practices.

Allen’s manufacturing sector consists of semiconductor, electronics and medical devices, and includes companies such as KONE, Finisar, WatchGuard Video, Quest Medical, Amphenol Fiber Systems International, Photronics, IntelliEPI and Billings Productions.

The service sector includes a blend of information technology, data processing, telecom, and software and programming firms. Major Allen technology companies include AT&T, Cisco, PFSweb, CVE Technologies, Experian Information Systems and SAP Concur. NETSCOUT, a global cybersecurity company, is currently constructing a new 145,000-square-foot regional headquarters facility for 540 employees, according to the city of Allen.