Over one million square feet now under construction at AllianceTexas for corporate and commercial real estate projects
Highlights Include Deloitte University, Healthcare Facilities, Corporate Expansions and New Alliance Town Center Tenants
FORT WORTH, Texas (April 19, 2011) – As AllianceTexas, Hillwood’s 17,000-acre master-planned community in North Texas, matures into a world-class development, significant construction and leasing activity is now underway or coming soon to the area. Over 1 million square feet is currently under construction within the development in a diverse mix of projects, including corporate, medical and retail facilities. The pace of activity signals that North Texas is emerging from the economic recession and demonstrates that AllianceTexas is continuing to contribute substantially to the region’s growth.
As evidence of the growth taking place at AllianceTexas, the community will host its first hiring fair in more than two years in May 2011, in order to fill hundreds of available positions at the currently-under-construction Deloitte University as well as for existing corporate residents. Further evidence can be found in the major construction and leasing activities at AllianceTexas, including:
• Deloitte University – Deloitte University is an over 700,000-square-foot learning and leadership development environment that will employ nearly 500 workers at Circle T Ranch and provide guest accommodations for 800. With construction well underway, Deloitte expects the $300-million facility to open in the third quarter of 2011 and be used to develop the organization’s next generation of leaders. Once open, Deloitte University will include 35 classroom and informal learning spaces, a variety of meeting and conference rooms, recreational activities and networking, dining and social venues.
• Texas Health Resources Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance – Currently under construction and scheduled to open in the Fall of 2012, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance will be a 262,000-square-foot facility and will be the first hospital in the AllianceTexas area. Upon completion, the facility will offer traditional hospital services including: general medicine, in and outpatient surgery, emergency services, imaging services, rehabilitation, women and infant services, physician offices as well as wellness and prevention education. Located on more than 40 acres at the corner of Golden Triangle Blvd. and I-35W, Texas Health Alliance will offer a personalized health care experience to meet the needs of this evolving community.
• THR Convenient Care Alliance – On July 1, Texas Health Resources will open Texas Health Convenient Care Alliance in Alliance Crossing, just north of its under-construction hospital. This new facility, located at 2401 Westport Parkway, Suite 140, will provide prevention and wellness education, screenings, occupational health services and primary care to the Alliance community.
• Emergency Medical Center at Alliance – The Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is under construction with its 10,500-square-foot emergency care facility located at the southern end of Alliance Town Center, which is scheduled to open in late 2011. The 24-hour-a-day, emergency room will have 12 exam rooms and will be staffed with hospital trained Emergency Board Certified Physicians and Registered Nurses. The Emergency Room will also provide laboratory and radiology services including CT Scanner.
• Corporate Growth – After completing nearly three million square feet in lease transactions in 2010, corporate retention and growth continue at AllianceTexas in 2011. LG Electronics, which nearly doubled its space at Alliance last year to accommodate a consolidation of its cellphone repair business, just announced a new lease for an additional 270,000 square feet of space in Alliance Gateway 53. Trican Well Service also leased 64,500 square feet in the Westport 3 building. The company provides a comprehensive array of specialized products, equipment and services that are used during the exploration and development of oil and gas reserves. Additionally, BNSF Railway, which operates a major intermodal facility at Alliance, experienced a record year in 2010, and has begun a robust hiring effort to meet customer demand, in addition to recently recalling about 3,000 employees who were furloughed during the peak of the recession.
• New Shopping and Dining – Bucking a national trend in declining retail site selection, Alliance Town Center, the community’s mixed-use center in north Fort Worth, became home last year to some of the country’s leading retail brands, including Rooms to Go, Olive Garden, JoS. A. Bank, Kroger Marketplace and Chick-fil-A. On the near-term horizon for the center are the opening of a 7,500-square-foot Mi Cocina Mexican restaurant by year end, the imminent opening of fine jewelry retailer James Avery and the imminent opening of Tuesday Morning within the Sam Moon Center at Alliance Town Center. New retail announcements for Alliance Town Center include a 2,800-square-foot stand-alone restaurant for Baker Bros., and storefronts for Cinch Cleaners and Great Clips to be located within 17,000 square feet of retail space currently under construction next to the recently opened Kroger Marketplace. In addition, QuikTrip and Centennial Liquors have purchased land within Westlake Corners, a future retail center located at the southwest corner of U.S. Highway 377 and Texas Highway 170.
“The future is bright for the AllianceTexas development, thanks to the vision we have pursued over the last twenty-plus years and the exciting projects about to come on line,” said Mike Berry, president of Hillwood Properties. “Our success truly is a testament to the hard work of our valued partners – the corporations, retailers and residents who call AllianceTexas home, as well as the public entities who have helped us build a world-class community that delivers a strong return on investment. We continue to view AllianceTexas as a shining star among U.S. master-planned communities and a focal point for the North Texas region.”
Anchored by the world’s first industrial airport and the largest inland port in the U.S., AllianceTexas continues to thrive despite national declines in commercial real estate growth in recent years. According to a report recently conducted for Hillwood by Insight Research Corporation, the development provided $2.03 billion in economic impact to the Fort Worth region during the recession’s darkest days in 2009 alone. AllianceTexas’ cumulative economic impact has now reached $38.5 billion since its creation more than 20 years ago, making the master-planned development one of the nation’s leading models for successful public-private partnerships.
ABOUT ALLIANCETEXAS
AllianceTexas (www.alliancetexas.com) is a 17,000-acre, master-planned community anchored by the world’s first industrial airport. It includes the Alliance Global Logistics Hub, Circle T Ranch, Heritage, Alliance Town Center, Saratoga and Monterra Village projects. AllianceTexas is now home to 262 companies, including 50 from either the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes lists of Top Private Firms. Together, these companies have built over 30 million square feet and created 28,000 jobs. The community also now includes nearly 7,500 single-family homes and 288 luxury apartment homes.
ABOUT HILLWOOD
Hillwood, a Perot company, is ranked as one of the top commercial real estate investors and developers in the country and as the top residential developer in Dallas-Fort Worth. The company’s developments currently house facilities for 65 companies listed on the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes List of Top Private firms. Hillwood is best known for its Alliance brand that includes the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas, 4,474-acre AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center and 2,000-acre AllianceCalifornia developments. For additional information about the company, please visit www.hillwood.com.
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