AllianceTexas Aces Space Race With $3.7B One-Year Impact

That's not to say AllianceTexas totally sidestepped the recession. But the final count of gain versus loss still has the Ross Perot Jr.-packaged projects ahead of the game despite the times. The best news is it's getting better, Mike Berry, president of Hillwood Properties, tells GlobeSt.com. "The signs we're seeing now are more positive than we have seen in the past nine months. We're all pretty encouraged over here."

In the past year, more than 2.5 million sf delivered in AllianceTexas. The names making the news were Volkswagen, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, W.W. Grainger and Cardinal Health. Another 1.6 million sf is under construction for Ford, Bridgestone/Firestone and Ryder. There's also the project that no one's talking about publicly although it's part of the City of Haslet's records--the 750,000-sf plan of Phillips Electronics, which is bringing 350,000 sf of new product to go with an existing 400,000 sf.

On the space race's minus side, AllianceTexas lost the 375,000-sf Georgia-Pacific to the other side of Dallas, but Hillwood held onto the tenant, who signed for one of its Mesquite properties. Valeo will shutter roughly 100,000 sf and move its operations to Michigan, but that's not until the end of the year. And, Berry points out, Valeo owns its building so it's not a direct Hillwood hit. There also was 192,000 sf vacated by Johnson Wax in a shift into a 400,000 build-to-suit in AllianceTexas. In all, about 700,000 sf will or have come to market in the past year through relocations, expansions and downsizing inside the boundaries, Berry says. The usual occupancy of the mid-90% is down a few percentage points these days, he admits. Still, he says, the past year has been "a net gain for us instead of a net loss."

The bulk of today's construction is along Texas 170 in Alliance Gateway on the eastern side of Alliance. As always, the goal is to fill about two million sf per year while having one big box of 300,000 sf to 400,000 sf and a couple smaller buildings standing ready for that "immediate" occupancy signing.

At the end of the day, the revenue balance is what catches the attention. The two-county, four-city AllianceTexas saw the aggregate property tax take go from $34.6 million in 1999 to $45.7 million in 2000. At the onset of Perot's plan some 11 years ago, Fort Worth's upfront investment was $31 million whereas the city's share of the real estate taxes for 11 operating years now totals $45.2 million.

Today's reading works out to a 26:1 ratio of private dollars to public dollars or $4.5 billion to $168 million. Other take-home pays in the past 11 years by the wealth-sharing municipal entities are Northwest School District, $62.3 million; Tarrant County, $24 million; Keller School District, $20 million; Roanoke, $3.3 million; Denton County, $2.3 million; and Haslet, $1.4 million.

At last count, the 110 companies inside the boundaries built 20.8 million sf and created 20,000 jobs. And, there are still about 11,000 acres standing undeveloped. Certainly not all is amenable to supporting new product, but what has been built, including the airport, has been done on 3,900 acres.