The Leader - March/April 2009 - (Page 70) ECONOMIC ANCHORS IN THE STORM: TEXAS, ARKANSAS AND LOUISIANA WEATHER THE CURRENT ECONOMY AND HAVE A MAJOR ROLE TO PLAY IN IMPENDING REBOUND Arkansas has quietly emerged as a hub for aviation and aerospace while taking advantage of its agricultural industry to become a global leader in food and biofuels. and Modern Art Museum, too, inspire legions of patrons. The Metroplex’s true Mecca, though, may be the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium, which is currently under construction in Arlington and reportedly a $1 billion-plus project capable of hosting 100,000 patrons. The Cowboys begin play in the new stadium in 2009, and the venue is to host the Super Bowl in 2011 and the NCAA Men’s Final Four in 2014. “It's exciting to see all this and the amazing amount of construction going on,” said Chad Schieber, vice president of Dallas-based Beck Group and president of CoreNet Global’s Southwest Chapter. The Trinity River, which runs along Dallas’ west and south side, offers both manmade and natural beauty, with the Trinity River Audubon Center and a series of bridges designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the first of which is scheduled to open this summer with a 400-foot-tall center arch. Don’t Fence Me In Radiating around Dallas and Fort Worth, the Metroplex suburbs and exurbs continue to expand based on plentiful land and quality of life. Thirty miles north of Downtown Dallas, McKinney has emerged as one of the fastest growing and most affluent communities in the U.S., which has also enabled the city to emerge as a sustainability leader. Wal-Mart’s “McKinney Experiment” is one of two “green” WalMarts in the U.S. In the store’s construction, the retail giant used fly ash in place of lime, cement and crushed stone, which require energy to produce. A wind turbine reduces the store’s energy consumption by approximately 5 percent, and sky lights, more efficient lighting and dimmer lighting save nearly 300,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year. Trees and other shade structures dot the parking lot, reducing heat islands. Pervious pavement and bioswales filter runoff water, and a rainwater harvesting and treatment system provides irrigation. Nearby, another global titan, Toyota, has its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified dealership at Patt Lobb Toyota. Construction of the dealership used locally produced materials as much as possible, as well as 75 percent recycled materials, including sidewalks made from recycled tires, a façade using recycled aluminum and recycled carpets that incorporate reused materials from automobile windshields. Pat Lobb Toyota recycled 90 percent of construction waste, too. As for current operations, the dealership recycles rain water, as well as waste oil from customers’ cars, recycles rain and waste water and uses solar power, among a long list of other initiatives. McKinney’s burgeoning office development includes the first LEED-platinum certified office building in the U.S., West World Holding’s McKinney Green. McKinney Green uses no potable water, geothermal energy for heating and cooling and is fully powered by wind energy. “The private sector is leading the way in those areas,” said David Pitstick, CEO of the McKinney Economic Development Corp. “They really took the lead.” Ever-improving infrastructure and incentives are part of McKinney’s success, too. Within the next five years, every major highway and road in and around McKinney, as well as the community’s airport runway, will be expanded or rebuilt. The $1 billion investment includes Texas State Highways 121 and 380, the Central Highway connect- 2 0 0 9 THE LE ADE R 70 MARCH / APRIL http://www.jcedb.org http://www.jcedb.org
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