But the region has more going for it than just population.
“Our strength really comes when we layer on top of that our
transportation connectivity,” says Rosa.
The highway system around the area provides transportation corridors stretching both north and south (Interstate
35W, which runs from Mexico to Canada) and east and west
(including Interstate 20 and Interstate 30). The Dallas-Fort
Worth area is a hub of rail activity, with the Burlington
Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) lines from the Port of Long
Beach and the Union Pacific Corp. line from Houston converging there. The area also has a strong air-cargo capability.
In addition to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport,
which saw 329,000 tons of cargo move through it in 2012,
the area is home to the world’s first dedicated industrial airport, Fort Worth Alliance Airport.
Dallas also benefits from a pro-business environment
with a favorable tax culture, a large employee pool, and a
temperate climate.
“But all that doesn’t matter if you don’t have a building or
someone who can build a building,” says Rosa. According to
Rosa, one way that Dallas sets itself apart from competing
regions is the level of sophistication that exists in its real
estate development community. Developers in the area are
well versed in what it takes to construct sophisticated logis-
tics industrial parks like the 9,600-acre Alliance Global
Logistics Hub, an inland port connected to the Alliance air-
port. “We look ahead at developing industrial areas and
industrial parks that meet the needs of shippers now and in
the future,” Rosa says.
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RENO, NEV.
A tongue-in-cheek slogan for the Reno, Nev., area might be
“Western Nevada: We’re not California.” Indeed, a company
can get its goods from a distribution center in Reno to any-
where in California within a one-day drive—all the while
avoiding the high taxes and heavy regulation that California
is infamous for.
“We compete extremely well against California because of
our tax base here,” says Stan Thomas, executive vice presi-
dent of marketing and competitive expansion for the
Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada.
“There’s no corporate tax or state income tax. Our utilities
are less than California’s, and our unemployment insurance
is less. Also, our property taxes are a little bit lower.”
Reno can also serve 10 other western states with a one-
day drive, says Thomas—even the hard-to-reach Pacific
Northwest. The area is a hub for UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp.
as well as regional parcel carrier On Trac. It is also served by
all major trucking companies as well as the BNSF and
Union Pacific.
The ease of reaching major western markets has made the
area particularly attractive to businesses engaged in e-com-
merce distribution, as well as to retail, pharmaceutical, and
nutraceutical companies. Currently, there are 74 million
square feet of warehousing and distribution space in the
Western Nevada area, which includes Reno, Sparks, and
Tahoe, according to Thomas. Companies with large distri-
bution centers in the area include traditional brick-and-
mortar retailers like JC Penney and Toys R Us as well as e-
commerce merchants like Amazon.com and Diapers.com.
The trendy retailer Urban Outfitters has its imports
TEXAS HOT SPOT: THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH METROPLEX HAS SEEN A DC
BUILDING BOOM, DRIVEN BY POPULATION GROWTH AND A STRONG LOGIS-
TICS INFRASTRUCTURE.
BETTING ON RENO: RATHER THAN OPERATE A DC IN THE INLAND EMPIRE,
RETAILER URBAN OUTFITTERS PROCESSES ITS IMPORTS AT A FACILITY IN
NEVADA.
