Dallas-Fort Worth might be known for distribution and warehouse buildings — not to mention intermodal areas — but, according to recent information from JLL, companies are increasingly eyeing the region as the seat for their large-scale manufacturing operations.

“Why North Texas for manufacturing? It’s for all the same reasons we are a key logistics center,” JLL Research Manager Walter Bialas said.

“Why North Texas for manufacturing? It’s for all the same reasons we are a key logistics center.”
Walter Bialas

In other words, the fundamentals of a central U.S. location, pro-business attitude, low cost of doing business, and infrastructure on the road, rail, and air sides work as well for factories as they do for distribution centers.

Bialas also noted that the DFW area — in fact, much of Texas — has large swaths of land, meaning massive manufacturing operations can be more easily accommodated.

A few challenges exist when it comes to dubbing North Texas a manufacturing center: labor availability and wages could be higher, Bialas said. And, out of a total industrial inventory of 582 million square feet, only 65 million of that space is manufacturing-dedicated. Many of those factories are smaller and older.

But, the trend in activity is interesting — and likely to include advanced manufacturers, Bialas told Dallas Innovates. The Dallas Regional Chamber and area brokers are fielding manufacturing requests, indicated below in the JLL infographic.

[Image: JLL]

In addition to the above projects, another eight manufacturing companies are considering DFW for facilities, and range from biopharma to consumer products and food manufacturers, Bialas said.

Get on the list.

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