FORT WORTH, Texas (Nov. 19, 2008) – Based on the 68th Annual Report of the Foreign-Trade Zone Board to the U.S. Congress (www.ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage/annualreport/ar-2006.pdf), the Alliance Foreign-Trade Zone #196 ranks No. 1 among U.S. general purpose Foreign-Trade Zones in foreign merchandise admitted to the zone.
In FY 2006, the latest year that data was available, Foreign-Trade Zone #196 admitted more than $4 billion in foreign products. Major users of Foreign-Trade Zone #196 at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub include Hyundai, Trans-Trade, KFS, LEGO, M&M Aerospace Hardware, and Motorola.
“Whether its goods arriving on rail from Asia through the West Coast ports, from Mexico by truck, or via air from Asia and Europe, the Alliance Global Logistics Hub is perfectly positioned to receive imported products for assembly and distribution to the rest of the U.S.,” said Steve Boecking, vice president of Hillwood Properties, the developer of AllianceTexas and the operator of FTZ #196. “With the recent capital improvement programs at the airport, the intermodal rail facility and the highways at Alliance, Hillwood expects the $4 billion annually in foreign goods admitted to the zone to grow significantly.”
TOP U.S. GENERAL PURPOSE FOREIGN TRADE ZONES By Value Of Foreign Goods Admitted
1. Fort Worth/Alliance (Texas)………………………………………. $4.031 billion
2. Port Hueneme (California)…………………………………………… $3.337 billion
3. Newark/Elizabeth (New Jersey)……………………………………. $3.278 billion
4. Harris County (Texas)…………………………………………………. $2.168 billion
5. El Paso (Texas)………………………………………………………….. $1.190 billion
Earlier this year BNSF completed a $32 million capital improvement program that included new entry and exit gates, new bridges and nearly nine miles of new track. These improvements will allow the facility to grow from the current 600,000 containers handled annually to more than a million containers annually. The BNSF Alliance Intermodal Facility is one of the busiest links in goods arriving from Asia through the West Coast ports to the central part of the United States.
At Fort Worth Alliance Airport, a runway extension project is currently underway to increase the length of the runways to 11,000 feet. The facility can currently handle any size jet, but the extended runways will allow fully loaded cargo flights to directly serve Asia and Europe on the hottest days of the year. The project is expected to be completed in 2015.
Construction is expected to begin early next year on the North Tarrant Express highway project that includes new lanes on Interstate 35W, which runs through the heart of the Alliance Global Logistics Hub.
In large part due to its role in handling foreign goods, AllianceTexas has had an economic impact of $33.8 billion on the North Texas economy in only 19 years of existence. In addition the development has attracted $6.5 billion in private investment, generated more than $625 million in property taxes and created 29,000 fulltime jobs.
The 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development includes the Alliance Global Logistics Hub, Alliance Town Center, the Monterra Village apartment home community, the corporate campuses of Circle T Ranch, the Vaquero estate golf community, and the Heritage and Saratoga residential communities. AllianceTexas now houses 6,700 single-family homes and 200 companies that occupy 30 million square feet. Sixty-five of the companies at AllianceTexas are ranked on the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes List of Top Private Firms.
Hillwood, (www.hillwood.com) a Perot company, is ranked as one of the top commercial real estate developers in the country and the top residential developer in Dallas-Fort Worth. More than 85 companies listed on either the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes List of Top Private firms conduct business in Hillwood developments. In addition to the AllianceTexas project, Hillwood is best known for its development of American Airlines Center and the Victory mixed-use district near downtown Dallas and AllianceCalifornia near Los Angeles.
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