Two North Texas Firms Head to Rockwall Technology Park for Expansions

In mid-May, the locally based Special Products & Mfg. Inc. will watch as crews descend on a 10.2-acre site for a 140,000-sf headquarters and manufacturing building near the intersection of Discovery Boulevard and Research Circle. Before May ends, Emphasis Medical Management, now based in Richardson, will break ground on a five-acre tract at the corner of Discovery Boulevard for a 25,000-sf back-office building, Greg Nixon, president of Rockwall Economic Development Corp. tells GlobeSt.com.

The Dallas-based Cadence McShane Corp., using a fast-track construction schedule, will have Special Products' headquarters building, designed with 13 dock doors, ready to occupy in late fall, according to Neal L. Harper, the firm's president. The 200-employee Special Products, a precision metal fabrication company and mechanical assembly house, will put two locations under one roof when the building delivers. Pross Design Group of Dallas is the project architect.

Special Products, founded in 1963, has expanded its Garland plant three times since it was built in 1982, according to the company's website. The firm's office and manufacturing facilities now cover 130,000 sf in two owned locations.

With the double deal, Nixon says the park's first phase is practically sold out so council floated bids for a contractor to add infrastructure for a second phase with some 20-acre tracts. He says most lookers these days want 20 to 30 acres instead of the five- to 10-acre tracts that were laid out six years ago when Rockwall Technology Park was started. The 275-acre park now houses three Fortune 500 companies and one Fortune 1000 business.

Nixon credits the park's success to council foregoing traditional abatement packages for a flat 4% development grant based on added assessment values and business personal property. He estimates Special Products' headquarters project will cost $6 million to $8 million to build while Emphasis Medical Management's the back-office project, ticketed to deliver in the fourth quarter, is a $3-million development. The project estimates do not include land costs, but the park's dirt is running from $1.50 per sf to $2.35 per sf.