News Article | 5/24/2010

Lego builds Tarrant presence with Alliance expansion

 

The Lego brand continues to build in Tarrant County as LEGO Systems Inc. has announced an expansion of its North American Distribution Center at Alliance Global Logistics Hub by nearly 200,000 square feet.

 

LEGO Systems, the creator of the children’s colorful plastic bricks toy, will bump up its lease from 402,500 square feet at Alliance Gateway 62 building to 596,000 square feet at Alliance Gateway 60 building. Both facilities are in the Roanoke portion of the logistics hub, according to today’s announcement.

 

LEGO’s distribution center growth comes seven months after global leisure giant Merlin Entertainments announced plans to build a $12 million Legoland Discovery Centre at Grapevine Mills Mall. Merlin Entertainments operates four Legoland amusement parks throughout the world, the original in Billund, Denmark. The Grapevine Legoland venue is slated to open in March 2011.

 

LEGO’s distribution center is managed by Exel Inc., a third-party logistics company that operates in approximately 2.5 million square feet of space at Alliance.

 

LEGO first opened its North American Distribution Center at Alliance in 2006. The 756,000-square-foot Alliance Gateway 60 building is located at 300 Freedom Drive.

 

The Alliance Global Logistics Hub is part of the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development in north Fort Worth, which was developed by Dallas-based Hillwood, a Perot company.

 

LEGO joins a list of companies, such as General Mills, Motorola, ATC Logistics, SC Johnson & Sons, LG Electronics and Bell Helicopter that have expanded at Alliance.

 

Exel was represented by Dan Cook of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas. Hillwood was represented in-house by Tony Creme.