Hillwood Set to Begin Building $55M Industrial Park as South Dallas Development Grows

As land becomes increasingly hard to find, business growth in South Dallas and South Dallas County ticks slowly upward, evidenced by the construction of two new industrial parks and a new state university.Trammell Crow Co. has a 1.6 million-square-foot facility already under construction, and Hillwood Investment Properties will break ground before the end of April on an anticipated $50 to $55 million 1.85 square million business park. Hillwood Investment Properties’ 113-acre Crossroads Trade Center is located on the west side of Interstate 35 East, just south of Interstate 20 in DeSoto in South Dallas County. The company plans to have pad sites ready for three buildings by the end of the third quarter, when the decision will be made whether to proceed with speculative construction. “Long term, building in the southern part of Dallas makes sense because there is a lot of relatively inexpensive land and that is important for industrial,” said Dan Tatsch (pictured), senior vice president of Hillwood Investment Properties. “The I-20 corridor provides good surface transportation in terms of highways and there are existing rail lines.”Tatsch said he believes the intermodal facility, in conjunction with the growing number of business parks, will increase the attractiveness of the southern sector to more logistics professionals when they are planning their distribution systems.”We’re seeing more industrial development moving southward today than just five years ago,” he added, noting that Trammell Crow Co. used to be the only major developer in the southern sector. “Now you’ve got Trammell Crow, Hillwood, ProLogis, Duke, Argent and those are the people who are on the ground with announced development plans. The Southern sector has not gotten its fair share of developments for a long time, but I think that is going to change.”Additionally, more jobs and economic opportunities should be coming to South Dallas as the University of North Texas nears the 2007 completion for its campus at Camp Wisdom and Houston School Road.