GRAND PRAIRIE, TX—The Helisim Simulation Center is Helisim's first helicopter training facility in North America and serves as its North American headquarters. McCarthy Building Companies is working with HPM Leadership and helicopter company, Airbus Helicopters Inc., and Helisim (a French joint venture of Airbus, Thales AVS and DCI) to build the helicopter pilot simulation training center. McCarthy broke ground in May 2019 and is expected to complete the project in March 2020.

"We are pleased to bring our aviation and specifically, simulator facility experience, to bear on this exciting Helisim project," said Joe Jouvenal, senior vice president of McCarthy. "As we mark the project's topping out, we are excited to deliver a state-of-the-art facility for pilots from around the world to train in."

The 18,000-square-foot training facility will house two helicopter flight simulators, the first Level D full-motion flight simulators in North America for Airbus H145 and H175 helicopters. The pre-engineered metal building includes three levels with 6,000 square feet of office space, a 12,000-square-foot simulator hall with a tech room as well as computer rooms, and workshop and meeting spaces.

A design-build project, McCarthy worked with BOKA Powell, LA Fuess, Reed Wells Benson and Pacheco Koch–the same team that built Southwest Airlines' simulator facilities in Dallas–for this facility. The Airbus Helicopter simulator project extends McCarthy's deep expertise in the aviation sector. Currently, McCarthy is building a 240,000-square-foot Tech Ops MX Hangar for Southwest Airlines at Houston's Hobby Airport, Southwest Airlines' WINGs expansion, and a canopy and renovation project for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

"McCarthy has a strong aviation portfolio across the US as well as here in the Southern region with five active aviation-related projects," Jouvenal tells GlobeSt.com. "After successfully completing the Southwest Airlines LEAD project that included 18 simulator bays, we were excited to work with Helisim to construct simulator and training areas for helicopter pilots."

Dallas-Fort Worth's industrial sector continues to exhibit strong market fundamentals through the third quarter of 2019, based on statistics from Cushman & Wakefield. Vacancy rates fell slightly to 6.7% for the market, with demand continuing to outpace supply.

The market currently has 34.7 million square feet of industrial space under construction. Development activity is focused on Alliance (12.1 million square feet), DFW Airport (5.5 million square feet) and Great Southwest (4.2 million square feet), says the Cushman & Wakefield report.

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