Business Facilities - August 2008 - (Page 24)

fication of the Midlothian economic base. Walnut Grove Business Centre is a high quality commercial business park with tenants such as Ennis, Inc., Methodist Charlton Medical Center, numerous other medical offices, and retail space. The nearly 27,000 people that call Midlothian home have the best of both worlds. They enjoy quiet, country living with a low crime rate, family friendly neighborhoods, and an excellent education system which includes Navarro College and Texas A&M-Commerce. Yet residents have easy access to any and every type of amenity available in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Midlothian’s close proximity to the Metroplex gives its companies access to a skilled workforce eager to work south of Dallas and Tarrant Counties. A recent study showed that Midlothian had an available workforce of nearly 500,000 people. When the Target distribution center conducted its job fair, they had over 13,000 people apply for approximately 620 jobs. Ennis, Inc. not only hired additional executive staff for their corporate headquarters, but they also staffed their central IT and marketing departments with ease. Midlothian is a pro-business community that welcomes quality conscious industrial and corporate citizens alike. The region is the Crossroads to Success, offering incentives including a Freeport Tax Exemption, a number of tax abatements, an Enterprise Zone, a Foreign Trade Zone, and Chapter 380 agreements. Located at the southern tip of Texas and connected to the Gulf of 24 AUGUST 2008 Many Fortune 500 companies, such as Panasonic, have recognized the Mission area as the best location for their regional and corporate support facilities. A S P E C I A L A D V E RT I S I N G S E C T I O N O F B U S I N E S S FA C I L I T I E S PHOTO CREDIT: MISSION EDC PORT OF BROWNSVILLE: HIGH DEMAND AND BETTER FACILITIES Mexico, the Port of Brownsville is a first-class, deep-water seaport that continues to be a busy hub of transportation options. Its five modes of available transportation include ship, barge, rail, truck, and air. Combine this with ample acreage, over 48,000 acres for development, and its location on the Texas/Mexico border, and you have an international seaport with all of the advantages. The port is a major center of industrial development with over 250 companies operating within its boundaries. The construction and repair of offshore drilling rigs, ship dismantling, steel fabrication, and paper bag manufacturing are just a few of the many diverse companies doing business here. Add to this the LPG storage/distribution, waste oil recovery, scrap recycling, bulk terminaling for miscellaneous liquids, grain handling, and grain storage activity, and you have a very long list of industrial activity at the Port of Brownsville. All around the port, roads have been reconstructed, sheds have been upgraded, and docks have been improved and updated. Work never stops at this International Sea Port as ongoing projects continue to give us the tools needed to create jobs and wealth for our community. Present cargo facilities include 11 deep draft dry cargo docks (10 with adjacent warehouses), five deep draft liquid cargo docks, and one dry cargo barge dock. In addition, it offers 720,000 square feet of transit shed space, sprinkler-equipped overhead cranes, and 450,000 square feet of open dockside aprons with the advantage of dry, railserved cargo docks. Increasing demands in several markets, our competitive rates, and our distinct logistical advantage are keeping the Port of Brownsville bustling. As it approaches its seventh decade and look ahead to the future, new opportunities continue to arise, helping lead us to economic success. More and more businesses are discovering the advantages of the business friendly NAFTA Port of Brownsville, and we are ready and willing to accommodate their needs. If you’ve never heard of Mission and the U.S.-Mexico border towns of the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, it is in your best economic interest to remember them. In the last decade, the southern border of the United States has seen tremendous development, and investors are discovering what is amounting to a modern-day gold rush. About 200 miles south of San Antonio, the Mission MSA is one of the most exciting enclaves of economic prosperity in the nation. New businesses open weekly to serve a rapidly growing population of more than 720,000 people. Twenty years ago, the area held less than half the current population, with an economy focused around agriculture. Since then, a wave of investment has changed thousands of farmland acres into shopping centers, residential subdivisions, and MISSION, TX CAPTURES INVESTOR ATTENTION

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Business Facilities - August 2008 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves: Florida Economic Development 2.0 Everything's Big in Texas Aerospace Sites: Poised for Takeoff The Nebraska Advantage Metro Spotlight: Cullman, Alabama Special Focus: Louisiana Industry Focus: Financial Centers Advertiser Index Inside LiveXChange

Business Facilities - August 2008

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