After some explosive growth in the past few years, the Dallas-Fort Worth industrial market is slowing down. But the local market remains strong long term, real estate officials say.
“Both on a national landscape level and here, we’re seeing those net absorption numbers certainly level off and drop on a comparative basis,” said Reid Goetz, senior vice president of Hillwood. “It’s really becoming more normalized.”
During the pandemic, Goetz said, companies rushed to find space as consumers and businesses began to shop online. That demand has slackened, he said.
“If absorption rate trends continue for the rest of the year, we’ll be pretty normalized, relatively speaking historically,” he said.
While leasing and construction has slowed down in Dallas-Fort Worth, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still opportunity, Goetz said.
“We’re still a top three, top four, top five market, depending on what numbers you look at from a construction standpoint,” he said. “There’s still a lot of opportunity as companies think about national distribution centers, and regional manufacturing for them to come to the DFW area.”
The long-term fundamentals of the area remain strong, Goetz said.
“That’s why we decided to execute on our speculative industrial building program that we announced a couple of weeks ago and why we’re designing over three and a half million feet within Alliance. The fundamentals here are very strong,” he said.
Among those fundamentals are population growth. Fort Worth is now the 12th-largest city in the country, according to new census numbers, and will likely overtake Austin within the next year.
The increase in population and continued job growth in the area “will help absorb vacant stock and support future developments over the next cycle,” according to a first quarter report on the local industrial market by real estate broker Transwestern.
Hillwood recently announced plans for Alliance Westport 14, a 766,994-square-foot, Class A, speculative industrial building.
In addition to Alliance Westport 14, Hillwood announced it was designing an additional 3.5 million square feet of next-generation industrial facilities across the whole 27,000-acre AllianceTexas development.
“We see significant opportunity in this current economic cycle to continue to invest into our industrial platform, particularly in the size range that Alliance Westport 14 offers,” said Goetz. “Despite a broader market slowdown in leasing and development, AllianceTexas continues to see exceptional demand from best-in-class logistics and manufacturing companies, in part due to the multimodal supply chain transportation options provided by the logistics amenity base here.”
The demand is coming both from companies that are already here and looking to expand as well as from companies outside the area looking to set up operations here, he said.
“We’ve seen consumer products, we’ve seen retailers, we’ve seen manufacturers,” he said. “The relocation of manufacturing capacity is a very real theme and real story, whether it’s from overseas to here in the U.S. or a relocation from other parts of the country. That’s a very real trend that we’re seeing here at Alliance.”
DFW Airport reopens runway in time for summer travel
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport has reopened its widest runway following a nine-month closure for scheduled rehabilitation. The runway, one of seven at DFW, returned to service May 24 in a shortened configuration of 9,275 feet to enable use of the surface during the busy summer travel season.
“The innovative approach to phased construction and a partial reopening allows crews to simultaneously finish the remaining work while safely bringing back into service what is normally one of the busiest departure runways for aircraft to use during the peak travel season,” said Mohamed Charkas, executive vice president of infrastructure and development at DFW.
The full runway is expected to open later this year. The rehabilitation project includes a complete reconstruction of the runway with a high-density asphalt overlay, as well as new and improved drainage, electrical infrastructure and lighting, signage and deicing infrastructure. The 2.7 million square feet of new runway surface is the equivalent to 570 NBA basketball courts, according to DFW.
Earlier this year, DFW was awarded a $45 million Airport Infrastructure Grant under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration to assist in funding the runway project.
This is the third runway to undergo a complete rehabilitation at DFW in the last seven years and is part of the airport’s ongoing capital improvement program that is set to invest more than $9 billion into expansions and facility improvements, including the complete rebuild of Terminal C and construction of a new Terminal F, during the next five years.
DFW will need the runway as it projects nearly 25 million passengers will travel through the airport between the months of May and July, an increase of 10% from the same period last year.
Fuzzy’s Taco Shop growing
Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, which opened its first fast-casual restaurant location near TCU to feed hungry Horned Frogs, is continuing to expand.
The brand, now based in Irving, said it has signed two multiunit development agreements to bring 40 new restaurants over the next eight years to Arizona and Texas.
“Fuzzy’s has transformed from a single neighborhood taco shop with a chill vibe in Fort Worth, Texas, into an emerging, nationally franchised concept with an exceptional bar program and a Baja-inspired menu that our guests have come to crave,” said Paul Damico, president, in a news release.
Going to the dogs
It’s rough — or should that be “ruff” — out there.
Fort Worth ranked No. 17 on the latest list of cities where dogs have taken a bite out of a postal employee.
Incidents involving dog attacks on Postal Service employees rose to more than 5,800 cases last year, according to the U.S. Postal Service. As part of the 2024 National Dog Bite Awareness Week Campaign, the organization released a ranking of cities and states where dogs attack postal workers.
Fort Worth saw 23 such attacks in 2023 and was ranked No. 17. That was well below Houston, which came in No. 2 with 56 attacks, and No. 7 Dallas, with 36 attacks. Texas, with 411 attacks on postal carriers total, doesn’t fare well, ranking No. 2 behind California’s 727 dog bites.
The National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign runs from June 2 through June 9. This year’s theme is “Don’t let your dog bite the hand that serves you.”
Do you have something for the Bob on Business column? Email Bob Francis at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.