TexAmericas Center (TAC) broke ground on a new speculative (spec) building to support future tenants relocating to, or growing in, the Texarkana region. The 150,000-square-foot building on 24 acres will be ready for new tenants in the summer of 2021 and is the first new building in the industrial park in 15 years. The groundbreaking was announced through a virtual video with local, state and federal legislators. The video news conference can be viewed here.
Breaking ground on a spec building reflects the growing momentum and confidence in opportunities available at TexAmericas Center and in the greater Texarkana region. Because of a strong pipeline and growth in leased space, officials identified and seized on a solid market opportunity. The spec building provides potential tenants with a space that has key required features and will be ready for immediate occupancy. In addition to the extended timeline that a build-to-suit option may have, a spec building also can limit upfront investment hurdles for potential tenants.
“A spec building allows us to offer potential tenants the type of facility and features in demand without the time and expense of a custom contract,” explained Scott Norton, Executive Director/CEO of TexAmericas Center. “It’s like an ‘If you build it, they will come’ investment in the future of our region.”
TexAmericas Center leaders worked with other community economic development professionals to plan the building which includes features that are attractive to potential tenants, flexible across a variety of industries, and scalable to meet a host of needs. The building is designed as a multi-tenant, mixed-use facility with 32-foot clear height ceilings, one dock door per 5,000 square feet, and two drive-in doors. The building will accommodate uses like large warehousing inventory akin to what you would find in a large metro market with the capability to subdivide down to 13,000-square-foot units as needed.
“We hear, time and again, that companies considering relocation or expansion at TexAmericas Center are impressed with the infrastructure updates made to the industrial park and appreciate an impressive transportation corridor that uses multiple state highways, interstates, air freight, and rail lines to disperse from a central U.S. location,” said Norton.
Additionally, new companies have access to a deep supply of skilled workers from a wide range of schools in the Texarkana area. TexAmericas Center has a 500-mile reach of 53.8 million people, which is 10 million more than the 500-mile reach of Dallas.
“The spec building is yet another example of our flexibility and adaptability to meet unique business needs,” said Eric Voyles, Executive Vice President and Chief Economic Development Officer with TexAmericas Center. “When a potential business wants to locate here, we help manage upfront investment and become their partners. They can feel confident in taking that next step because we have skin in the game, too.”
The groundbreaking for the spec building is just another in a series of successes for TexAmericas Center. In July, it announced that Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company employing more than 110,000 people worldwide, will expand operations at in support of a Public/Private Partnership contract with the Red River Army Depot (RRAD). In August, TexAmericas Center was ranked the No. 8 industrial park in the country by Business Facilities in its 2020 Metro and Global Rankings Report. It was also named the site of a proposed new $200 million regional water treatment center to support long-term growth projections for the region and added third-party logistics services to its suite of business services.
TexAmericas Center is fulfilling its mission as a catalyst of economic investment in the Texarkana region. Since May 2014, TexAmericas Center has increased its total leased square footage by more than 85% to more than 1 million square feet. Its 12,000 acres and 3 million square feet of space is fully entitled, providing potential tenants of specialized industries options that would be difficult or cost-prohibitive to secure in other regions. Its location in the Texarkana metropolitan area offers an attractive pipeline of talent and a logistics network to rival many larger – and therefore more expensive – urban hubs. Additionally, TexAmericas Center offers a complement of unique assets like utilities, rail, fiber, and a transload facility.