35-Acre Airport Project Breaks New Ground for US Logistics

Five years have gone into the planning for the Trammell Crow Co. International Air CargoCentre III, AirFreight & LogisticsCentres I, II and III, designed with 395,000 sf of class A space and supported by 347,652 sf of rentable apron space to put all cargo-related functions side by side. The cargo center is designed to park four Boeing 747-400F freight planes or three Airbus A380s.

"It puts the airport on the leading edge," Steven Bradford, principal of TCC's Global Airport Development, tells GlobeSt.com, "with respect to being able to handle the next generation of aircraft and those airlines, like the Asian carriers, that will be incorporating the Airbus A380 into their fleet mix." No other US airport, he says, has a cargo facility with the ability to park wide-body planes beside its logistics space.

"We are building a cargo facility for the future and that includes unequivocally the aircraft of the future," Bradford says. "It addresses all the issues and concerns not only what the airlines face today, but in the future." The project cost is being kept under wraps.

The first phase of the master-planned development consists of the 120,000-sf CargoCentre III, 114,300-sf AirFreight & LogisticsCentre I and its 114,200-sf sister. The buildings will deliver in September. In 2006, work will begin on the second phase: a 50,000-sf version of the air freight and logistics center and a 20,000-sf expansion of the cargo center. The project will go up at the west cargo area, bounded by West Airfield Drive and two other TCC logistics buildings.

Today's ceremony not only heralds a ground-breaking project, but announces the lead tenant--Worldwide Flight Services Inc., which has signed a long-term lease to expand its airport footprint. The locally based firm has preleased 75,000 sf of cargo warehouse and office space and 140,000 sf of the apron. Worldwide Flight Services, the lead in another TCC airport structure, provides ground-handling services for cargo and passenger airlines at 100 airports in North America and Europe.

Bradford says the prototype design is transportable to other US airports, which already have shown interest in duplicating the development. "Our focus is on DFW, but we are talking with other airports," he says.

The development, like others at the airport, is tied to a 40-year ground lease. But unlike others at the airport, logistics and freight-forwarding spaces are adjacent to off-loading and loading areas. "It's much more secure than putting it on the bed of a truck and driving it two to five miles to a logistics center," Bradford says. There is a manned gate between the aircraft apron and logistics buildings, but it still allows a seamless and efficient flow of goods from the tarmac to the warehouse, he adds.

TCC's class A development "will allow DFW to solidify its position as the preeminent, mid-continent cargo gateway to Asia, Europe, Latin America and the rest of the world," Jeff Fegan, the airport's CEO, says. The airport is ranked ninth in the US for cargo traffic.

Carter & Burgess Inc. of Fort Worth is the project's lead architect and engineer. Gromatzky Dupree & Associates of Dallas also worked on the design. Bob Moore Construction Co. of Arlington is the general contractor. Bradford and TCC associate Toby Rogers are leasing the space.

TCC has developed more than 3.9 million sf in 17 projects on ground-leased airport land since the 1980s. In 1997, it completed its first ramp-served facility and brought a second out of the ground three years later, both of which will border the international combo cargo and logistics development.