Development group eyes big tech support services for development:
As high-tech industry eyes development in North Texas, the Denison Development Alliance is taking steps to prepare sites for future development of support services. The Denison City Council came out of executive session Monday night and voted to convey 28.41 acres of land outside of the Texoma Technology Park to the DDA.
The park, located along the intersection of U.S. Highway 75 and Highway 84, is one of two primary sites in Denison that the DDA and economic developers feel could see significant development as suppliers and other support services relocate to the region in order to take advantage of the multi-billion dollar developments taking place at Texas Instruments and GlobalWafers in Sherman.
“We are pretty optimistic that they are going to see a lot of activity to support the chip plants, meaning suppliers coming into the market,” DDA President Tony Kaai said. “So, we are trying to get everything tightened up and put together so we are absolutely ready for those deals if we get to see some of them.”
In late 2021, TI announced plans to develop a new $30 billion semiconductor production site near its existing facility in Sherman. The site could employ more than 3,000 workers at full build out, with the first phase of the facility expected to begin production in 2025. This was followed less than a year later by Global Wafers who announced it will be building a $5 billion silicon wafer production site.
During the DDA’s annual economic summit in January, Kaai said he expects that the redevelopment of the former Johns Manville site will be anchored by industries aimed at supporting these major developments.
Now, the DDA appears to be preparing another site for similar development. Kaai said he expects that the technology park would also meet the needs of support services that need to locate near the tech plants.
The 28 acres that the city is conveying to the DDA is located just to the west of the existing park site and is close to Randell Lake. With this additional land, the technology park sports about 188 acres of land, but Kaai noted that not all of it is developable.
“This is immediately adjacent on the west side of our property line,” he said. “There’s about 28 acres there that’s between our property and the flood plane where the drainage that goes into Randell Lake is. It is kind of in an odd place and we’ve talked about it for years and getting it signed over to the DDA to expand the industrial park.”
Up until recently, there wasn’t much need to finalize this transfer, Kaai said. However, the expected need for developable land expedited the process. If looked as individually, the additional acreage could support a 300,000- to 400,000-square-foot building, Kaai said.
The new facilities are expected to start production of goods sometime around 2025, which puts a timetable in place for developers of support services, Kaai said. Many are already in the process of finding sites for development and should be making progress over the next two-and-a-half years, he said.
“It’s just a wild guess but based on everything that’s going on up here in Sherman and Denison — particularly the chip plants in Sherman — predicting that they will be open in a little over two years, the suppliers for those plants should be in the marketplace,” he said. “There are already some in the marketplace looking for sites.”
By Michael Hutchins
Herald Democrat, March 23, 2023
Copyright 2023 Herald Democrat, a CherryRoad Media Newspaper, Edition 3/23/2023
