HOOKS, Texas-TexAmericas Center added 82 new jobs to the Texarkana area during the center's previous fiscal year (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016) according to a report the center released recently.
The 82 new jobs represent an 18 percent increase in job growth for the center, which has 26 business tenants on the center's 12,000 acres of property. The property's size makes the center one of the largest mixed-use industrial parks in the U.S. Most of the land is former military property belonging to the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant.
Half the current tenants on the three TAC campuses reported employment growth ranging from 7 percent to 78 percent.
Five tenants lost a total of
19 jobs.
"TexAmericas Center anticipates more growth for the 2016-2017 fiscal year," said TAC's president and CEO Scott Norton. "We are dedicated to helping strengthen the local economy and know that attracting new businesses will help to do this through growing and diversifying the current job market for the region."
During the fiscal year, 24 businesses were retained, or 92 percent.
Collectively, the 12,000 acres-located west of Texarkana between New Boston and Hooks-contains three million square feet of commercial and industrial real estate property available to future tenants. Most of the center's tenants are private business owners or corporation, with a collective overall annual payroll of $13.9 million.
The center serves a four-states market. While it operates similar to a municipal government, it functions are more like a traditional real estate development company and controls it's own zoning, permitting and inspection processes. This allows the tenant-customers the ability to enter into the commercial market faster. It also allows tenant-customers to take advantage of both state and local government incentive programs.
Of the 26 businesses, which occupy about 1,500 acres, two of them opened this year, accounting for 22 of those 82 jobs. One of those businesses was Expal USA, an energetics (explosives) firm that collects and re-purposes military explosives. The other was VSE Corporation.
The center's Board of Directors will hold their regular monthly meeting at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Nash, Texas, Municipal Training Center. At that time, they will consider consider leasing some additional expanded warehouse space to Expal.