The Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership is gearing up to play offense.
The 2½-year-old nonprofit organization that was formed out of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce to provide a more focused approach to economic development is preparing to target Fortune 500 companies in key Fort Worth target industries such as aerospace, mobility, energy, life sciences, corporate and financial services, and film.
That effort is the result of the organization’s success over the past two years, said Robert Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership.
“In early 2026, we’ll take that momentum to the next level with the launch of a targeted lead generation campaign built around the key factors companies care about most,” Allen told attendees at the organization’s annual meeting on Oct. 29 at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
“We’re going to be proactive, strategic and relentless making Fort Worth’s case,” Allen said.
Allen said the partnership has helped bring 11,000 jobs and $9.7 billion in capital investment to Fort Worth. That outpaces similar-sized cities such as Jacksonville, Florida, and Nashville, Tennessee.
The organization is continuing to see interest, he said.
“Our inbound pipeline is strong, processing nearly 200 projects with nearly 50% of those in a target industry for the city of Fort Worth,” Allen said.
Allen highlighted three projects that were key wins for the city: Siemens, which opened a new $190 million electrical equipment plant in south Fort Worth; Bell, a longtime Fort Worth-based defense and aerospace company that is building a $600 million-plus plant for a future military aircraft; and Wistron, which is building two plants to manufacture artificial intelligence chips, a project valued at $687 million expected to create 888 jobs.
Those announcements “demonstrate what’s possible when Fort Worth competes to win,” said Allen.
Mayor Mattie Parker said she was pleased that Fort Worth has gone from trying to figure out how to do economic development effectively, to actually doing it.
“We’ve got solutions. We know what works,” she said. “We know that this team is effective in partnership with the city of Fort Worth, and we just have to keep doing more of this.”
The Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership annual meeting included a fireside chat between Hillwood President Mike Berry, who is also president of the board of the partnership, and James Litinsky, chairman and CEO of MP Materials, the company that built a plant to manufacture permanent magnets from rare earth materials. MP Materials magnets are essential components in vehicles, drones, robotics, electronics, and aerospace and defense systems, yet for decades, the U.S. has relied almost entirely on foreign sources for these critical inputs.
The Fort Worth plant, which opened in 2022 with a commitment from General Motors to purchase its magnets, is the only domestic producer of those critical components. In July, the U.S. Department of Defense invested $400 million in the company to shore up the country’s domestic supply of rare earth minerals and magnets. A week later, computer giant Apple made a $500 million commitment to purchase materials from the company.
As a result of those deals, MP Materials is expanding production at its Fort Worth plant and is in the process of developing a second plant to meet demand, said Litinsky.
Litinsky said Fort Worth was not at the top of the list when they were first making a decision on where to build their magnet plant.
“The key thing at that time was meeting with Ross (Perot Jr.) and it was very clear … that this was a place that not only wanted our business, but believed in our business,” he said.
Perot was clear that MP Materials would have the full support of not just Hillwood, but from Fort Worth, beyond just tax incentives, Litinsky said.
“Knowing that the leadership believed in us, that was the determinant factor,” he said. “My belief was we should just partner with great people in a place that wants to do business and believes in our business.”
Allen came to Fort Worth in 2023 from the Texas Economic Development Corp. in Austin, where he had served as president and CEO since 2017, leading the state’s economic development efforts. Prior to that role, he served as deputy chief of staff to Gov. Greg Abbott.
Economic Development Partnership leader Allen said the community has been supportive of the organization’s efforts, funding 93% of their $5 million ambitious fundraising goal.
“The founders of this city dug the deep wells of innovation and progress we still draw from today,” Allen said. “They transformed a small town on the edge of the prairie into a global destination — and it’s on us to keep that spirit alive and push it forward.”
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When Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and other business leaders in the community first began discussing how to position Fort Worth as ‘the most vibrant and sustainable city in the United States,’ they envisioned creating an organization that would elevate the North Texas city’s approach to economic development and build long-term prosperity by attracting investment across industries — from aerospace, defense, mobility and logistics to financial services, biotech, life sciences and film production.
In 2023, the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership (Fort Worth EDP) was formed. Since then, and under the leadership of president and CEO Robert Allen, this privately-funded economic development nonprofit has “exceeded every expectation,” securing nearly $10 billion in new capital investment and generating more than 11,000 new jobs across the city, Mayor Parker said yesterday at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, following Fort Worth EDP’s annual general meeting.
Major investment from the aerospace cluster
Over the last two years alone, American Airlines and Bell have doubled down on their investments in Fort Worth. The former is in the process of investing over $4 billion to double the number of gates at its new Terminal F at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and the latter is investing over $600 million in a new manufacturing center to build components for the Bell MV-75 (V-280 Valor), a tiltrotor aircraft that was selected by the United States Army for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program.
Some members of the Fort Worth community assumed that the Bell project was a foregone conclusion because the defense contractor’s headquarters are already in Fort Worth. “Let me assure you, it was not,” Allen said. “It took hours and a large team to beat two other extremely competitive states. Successful economic development is not a given. It is earned.”
“Beyond hundreds of jobs and a capital investment that likely will near a billion dollars by the time they’re done,” he added, “this project shows that Fort Worth can support the next-generation growth of companies that have their roots right here at home. It’s a statement about Fort Worth’s advanced aerospace and defense capabilities, now recognized by the Governor as the aerospace and defense capital of Texas for ten years.”
Aircraft maintenance, AI and film
Other significant new projects in Fort Worth are afoot. German tech conglomerate Siemens is plowing $190 million into a new electrical products manufacturing hub, and Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Wistron is spending $761 million to establish two AI supercomputer facilities in AllianceTexas — the 27,000-acre, master-planned development run by multinational firm Hillwood.
In early October, Brazilian airframer Embraer announced plans to open a new service center at Perot Field Alliance Airport, the cornerstone of AllianceTexas, to support the growing fleet of E-Jets in the United States.
“If billions of dollars in investments in aerospace or AI don’t excite you,” Mayor Parker said, “there’s always the sexy topic of film and television production in the city of Fort Worth.” She pointed to the tremendously successful partnership between Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, Hillwood, and Paramount Television in the form of SGS Studios, which was founded by Sheridan and, at 450,000 square feet, is now the largest production studio in the state of Texas.
“Film productions are happening all over the city of Fort Worth,” she noted. “You’ve seen Nicole Kidman walking around the streets of Fort Worth,” as she has been filming the third season of Lioness, a Paramount+ series, in the city.
These announcements “show real impact, capital flowing into our community, thousands of excellent jobs and momentum for Fort Worth’s economy.”
The future of warfare
Now the tenth largest city in the United States, Fort Worth offers a variety of tax incentives including tax abatements for new development. With a strategic location including excellent transportation access, strong leadership and a skilled and growing workforce, the city has become what Fort Worth EDP calls “a business climate designed for business success.”
To wit, MP Materials, the United States’ only fully integrated rare earth producer, will significantly expand the capacity of its Fort Worth magnetics facility. In July, it entered into a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense to accelerate the build-out of an end-to-end U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain and reduce foreign dependency.
“Rare earth magnets are one of the most strategically important components in advanced technology systems spanning defense and commercial applications. Yet today, the U.S. relies almost entirely on foreign sources,” explained MP Materials at the time. “This strategic partnership builds on MP Materials’ operational foundation to catalyze domestic production, strengthen industrial resilience, and secure critical supply chains for high-growth industries and future dual use applications.”
Apple has also committed to buying $500 million worth of rare earth magnets developed at MP Materials’ Fort Worth facility.
When MP Materials began its search for a manufacturing site, it “ran a very broad search. And when we started, Fort Worth was not at the top of the list at that time,” founder, chairman and CEO James Litinsky confided to Hillwood president Mike Berry yesterday evening.
Meanwhile, Fort Worth EDP is moving from strength to strength. Recently recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit and boasting new offices on West 7th Street, it has been quietly building a target list of 500 companies, and in 2026 will launch a lead generation campaign in its target industries, including aerospace and defense, where it reckons it has a distinct advantage.
“Through the EDP, we’ve transformed how Fort Worth competes for and attracts and retains business here in our city,” noted Mayor Parker. “We’re no longer simply responding and playing defense, we’re on offense” and creating opportunities to “redefine” Fort Worth’s place in the global marketplace.
“We’re going to be proactive, we’re going to be strategic, and we’re going to be relentless in making the Fort Worth business case.”
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Innovation in North Texas happens on corporate campuses and at startups, in tech labs and on factory floors—across industries being reimagined for the future.
This year’s finalists for The Innovation Awards 2026 capture that story. They’re proof that innovation has become one of the region’s most powerful economic forces.
Presented by D CEO in a collaboration with Dallas Innovates, the annual program celebrates the people and companies leading the way.
All finalists will be recognized in the January/February issue of D CEO magazine and online at DallasInnovates.com. Winners will be revealed at a private awards event in January.
Inaugural Legacy of Innovation honoree
The 2026 program introduces a new distinction—the Legacy of Innovation Award—honoring leaders who’ve changed the course of North Texas through innovation and impact. The first honoree: Ross Perot Jr.
As founder and chairman of Hillwood, Perot has spent decades shaping the region’s economy through forward-thinking projects like AllianceTexas, the 27,000-acre mixed-use development that evolved from the nation’s first purely industrial airport into a $130 billion economic engine for Dallas-Fort Worth over 35 years.
Today, AllianceTexas integrates industrial and commercial hubs with residential communities across nine municipalities in the region, anchored in northern Fort Worth.
“Every generation of technology”
Perot has said AllianceTexas has been able to “ride every generation of technology.” One relatively early milestone was the $2 billion Facebook data-center deal. In 2025, Dallas Innovates reported Wistron planning two AI supercomputing facilities, Torc Robotics establishing its new autonomous truck operation, and aerospace manufacturer Embraer committing up to $70 million for a regional jet facility—all within AllianceTexas.
A short list of other major companies and brands located at AllianceTexas includes Amazon, BNSF, FedEx, Meta, UPS, Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, Deloitte, with manufacturers like MP Materials, which produces rare-earth magnets for companies like Apple and General Motors.
A testbed for mobility tech
Perot aims to position North Texas as “the mobility innovation zone in the entire world.” Through Hillwood’s Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ), AllianceTexas has become a testbed for emerging air and surface mobility technologies. Dallas Innovates has chronicled its rise as a hub for autonomous trucking, drone logistics, and next-generation air operations, including a recent simulation that saw autonomous helicopters and drones coordinate over Perot Field in a wildfire-response exercise.
The vision extends beyond technology and mobility. A recent Hillwood partnership with Taylor Sheridan brought Texas’s largest film-production campus, SGS Studios, to AllianceTexas.
Perot is also chairman of The Perot Group, co-founder of the venture capital firm Perot Jain, and co-founder of Perot Systems Corporation, which was acquired by Dell in 2009.
His influence extends well beyond the region. In June 2025, he was named board chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he helps set national policy priorities focused on growth and innovation.
Perot’s impact spans decades. The 80 finalists for The Innovation Awards 2026 show how that spirit of innovation continues across North Texas.
The Innovation Awards 2026 Finalists:
Legacy of Innovation Award
Ross Perot Jr., Hillwood and The Perot Group
Innovation in Manufacturing and Consumer Goods
Adom Industries, led by John Lauer
MP Materials, led by James Litinsky
SecureFoundry, led by Lex Keen
Trotter, led by Victor Trotter
Innovation in Real Estate and Hospitality
AllianceTexas x SGS Studios, led by Mike Berry
Billee.ai, led by John Hinckley
FlexEtc, led by Shawn Gault
Rogers O’Brien, led by Justin McAfee
Stonethrow, led by Nick Clark
Innovation in Transportation
Mozee, led by Shawn Taikratoke
MW Logistics, led by Mitchell Ward
Torc, led by John Marinaro
Toyota Connected North America, led by James George
View Full List of Finalists
As president of Hillwood, Mike Berry oversees the 27,000-acre development known as AllianceTexas in far north Fort Worth. He said his job has changed vastly since he started working with the company and its founder, Ross Perot Jr., in July 1988. For starters, back then no one knew who they were or what they were trying to do.
“Mr. Perot’s name was obviously a well-known name in U.S. business circles, but really, no one knew of our organization, at least in the role that we were trying to establish our brand and our identity, and more importantly, we were building a project that had never been built before,” Berry said.
That project became Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, the world’s first industrial airport, which opened in 1989 and was designed specifically for cargo and corporate aviation. The public-private partnership between Hillwood, the Federal Aviation Administration and the City of Fort Worth has totaled $16.3 billion in investment, with $15.2 billion from the private sector and $1.1 billion from the public sector, according to a new report from the Texas comptroller.
Alliance generated $10.21 billion last year in economic impact and $130 billion since 1990, according to a report from Hillwood. The area is a major inland port, home to the airport as well as BNSF’s Alliance Intermodal Facility, and accounted for $834.6 million in trade in Texas in 2024. Major companies that have invested there range from Amazon Air to FedEx, along with Target, Henry Schein and Topgolf Callaway.
Berry’s work was recognized by the North Texas Commission in September, when he received the organization’s top honor: the Dan Petty Regional Visionary Award. The award recognizes leaders who have contributed significantly to the economic vitality of North Texas.
While Berry still says his work revolves around building relationships and sharing the potential of Alliance, he is also focused on the future of the region as a whole. Dallas Business Journal spoke with Berry to talk about his priorities and what’s next for AllianceTexas. This conversation has been edited lightly for grammar, length and clarity.
DBJ: How has your job overseeing Alliance changed over the decades?
Berry: When I started … no one really knew who we were. Mr. Perot’s name was obviously a well-known name in U.S. business circles, but really, no one knew of our organization, at least in the role that we were trying to establish our brand and our identity, and more importantly, we were building a project that had never been built before: an industrial airport. There had never been one like it built, and certainly not one built led by the private sector. … Really my job was spent for at least the first decade … just establishing relationships, telling the story and the capabilities of North Texas and Alliance to companies in all different sectors: aviation, aerospace, logistics and transportation.
Over the years we were able to, fortunately, win some big projects and bring in a variety of big companies. And that sort of set the stage for us to grow up to the present. Now my job is more about strategy and growth. How do we build? How do we future-proof not just Alliance but really the whole North Texas area? How do we continue to build infrastructure? How do we continue to maintain a competitive housing affordability, supply? How do we address energy long term? How do we address roads and mobility? How do we address education and workforce development? Because all of those things play a huge role in in our development of 27,000 acres. We can’t continue to be successful if the region’s not leading and successful.
One of the big announcements made last year was a $262 million project to advance logistics in Alliance. What is the next milestone for the Smart Port initiative?
We accomplished two milestones. We received an $80 million Smart Port grant from the federal government, which we’re now moving forward in implementing, which will allow basically connector lanes to be built directly from the intermodal center out to I-35 and State Highway 170, which will free up the flow of of goods. Then the other thing, which was just approved by the commissioners at the Texas Department of Transportation, is an agreement on a lease to allow us to build a private bridge from the intermodal hub over Highway 156 and tie it into our Westport development, which opens up direct access to all that freight into an area where we can build about 15 million square feet of future industrial space. Neither of them are under construction. We’ve still got a few things to do, but we’ve gotten all the approvals.
I’m curious if there are any new industries that you’re targeting?
So the project that we announced recently with Wistron and Nvidia, that is an advanced manufacturing project where actually Wistron, who’s the contract manufacturer for Nvidia, will be building the servers, supercomputers with the Nvidia AI chips that go in them that will basically run a lot of these new data centers that are being built. With that project, we’re now also seeing other related suppliers, other related manufacturers coming in as a result of that announcement. So I think we’re going to see more advanced manufacturing activity happen that we really haven’t seen before focused in on that tech and supercomputer manufacturing sector.
The other one that we really never anticipated is the movie studio activity. We just completed building out 450,000 square feet of sound stages inside two of our spec buildings at Alliance. So we basically took our standard spec industrial business and converted it into sound stages, and they’re already full, and we just finished them literally. So [four] of the Paramount Taylor Sheridan shows … are being filmed there. We’re now looking at, how do we grow? How do we expand? Where can we build more of a full campus that would include not just the sound stages, but then also all the post-production support that needs to be around these sound stages? So that’s a whole industry sector that we think there’s real growth around that.
With what’s happening, both with the film incentives that were passed by the legislature this summer and with the workforce development training programs that are in place, I think you’re going to see a lot of growth, not just at Alliance, but I think the whole state is going to begin to see a lot of projects spring up around the production industry.
Then lastly, mobility innovation. We created a few years ago a Mobility Innovation Zone at Alliance to attract a lot of the freight mobility leaders who are doing autonomous trucking and freight movement with autonomy both both surface and air, drones and trucks. And we just announced recently a new company [Torc Robotics] located here at Alliance. They have an autonomous truck that actually is running on the roads today, but they are one of several of the autonomous companies that are starting to locate here. So I think there’s a real opportunity for us to grow that sector as well.
How are you navigating tariffs when it comes to whether to build the next big industrial space?
They’re cutting both ways. In certain industries they are causing people to pause. But the tariff issue is causing some companies, particularly offshore or foreign-owned companies, to accelerate manufacturing activity in the U.S. Wistron is Taiwanese. We’re seeing interest from more Taiwanese companies. We’re seeing Korean companies. We’re seeing activity out of Europe, some European manufacturing companies.
In certain cases, the tariff impact is actually accelerating capital investment, particularly by foreign-owned manufacturers in the U.S., and that’s why we are continuing to build spec in this environment, because we think there is a wave of activity that actually will accelerate because of the tariffs.
Are tariffs raising construction costs for you? And are these companies that are trying to move forward, are they willing to pay new prices?
When the tariffs started to first roll out, we did a big analysis internally about how we would be impacted. Our big materials [are] steel, concrete and lumber. And for the most part, we source our big materials domestically. So to date, we haven’t been greatly impacted by the tariffs on our big shell construction costs. Where the tariffs are impacting are on certain finish-out items. One is lighting fixtures, specialty finishes, things like that that you’re having to buy overseas. But as a percentage … of total cost, we’re not seeing huge impact from the tariffs.
Most of our big costs, we’re able to source it domestically. And hopefully that continues. There’s a little bit of a dip in construction right now, at least in North Texas, in both industrial and multifamily. Those are two of our largest product lines. So I think we might be … helped a little bit by that little bit of softening in the market.
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The world’s third-largest commercial airplane manufacturer is expanding its footprint in far north Fort Worth. Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer broke ground Monday on its second maintenance hangar in AllianceTexas.
The company opened its facility in an existing hangar at Perot Field in June, but the new one will expand the Embraer’s maintenance, repair and overhaul capacity by 53%, president and CEO Francisco Gomes Neto told a crowd of about 100 people at a ceremony celebrating the groundbreaking.
The hangar is expected to open in early 2027. The company is investing $70 million to build the hangar, which it says will create 250 new jobs.
“We’re not just building infrastructure. We’re building futures,” Neto said. He thanked the city of Fort Worth for its partnership to bring the hangar to fruition.
The company signed an economic development agreement with the city in October 2024 whereby the city would forgive 50% of the company’s real estate and business property taxes for seven years provided Embraer meets conditions around investment, jobs, and salaries.
Those conditions include the creation of 250 jobs with an average salary of $67,000, along with investing a minimum of $57 million in the construction.
When AllianceTexas got started more than 35 years ago, the goal was to attract the best brands and companies from around the world, Hillwood chairman Ross Perot Jr. said at Monday’s event.
“To have Embraer on this program is very special for us because you are one of the great global brands,” Perot said.
He also noted the company’s role as one of the largest suppliers of domestic aircraft in the United States along with its partnerships developing airplanes for the military.
“Our goal here is to help you continue to grow,” Perot said while emphasizing Fort Worth and the state of Texas’ commitment to what he called economic freedom.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker called Monday’s groundbreaking an exciting milestone for the North Texas region. “The airport continues to serve as a hub of innovation and economic opportunity, and Embraer’s expansion further strengthens Fort Worth’s position as a global leader in aviation and advanced manufacturing,” Parker said in a press releases celebrating the event.
Embraer’s expansion is not only bringing high quality jobs, but highlights the strength of Fort Worth’s business environment and talent of the city’s local workforce, she said. Embraer has been amazed with the speed it took to get the first hangar up and running to serve clients, said Carlos Naufel, president and CEO of Embraer’s support division, speaking to reporters after the groundbreaking.
A day after opening its first Fort Worth hangar, the company signed an agreement with domestic carrier CommuteAir, which operates a fleet of 59 Embraer ERJ145s primarily for United Airlines.
“We’ve already delivered some aircraft to our customers. Our hangar is full, and we’ll probably see this in the future hangar,” Naufel said.
The new hangar will also focus on maintenance for Embraer’s commercial aviation fleet.
Embraer has about 18,000 employees and is a leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes with up to 150 seats. The company’s aircraft transport roughly 150 million passengers per year, and on average one of its aircraft takes off every 10 seconds, according to company statistics.
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More than 90 years ago, civic leaders in Fort Worth and Dallas picked up a dream of predecessors of turning the Trinity River into a navigable waterway connecting the North Texas region to the Gulf of Mexico.
Or Gulf of America. Or whatever.
The idea actually began in Dallas in the 19-teens.
By 1930, Amon Carter wanted a piece of the action for Fort Worth. He and John Carpenter of Dallas were the driving forces in forming the Trinity Improvement Association to push for canalization of the river.
Carter and his Dallas counterparts kept the canal dream alive through the mid-20th century.
Their sons, Ben Carpenter and Amon Carter Jr., carried the torch through the 1950s and ’60s as the Trinity Improvement Association and the Trinity River Authority pressed Congress for funding.
By 1965, thanks in part to the support of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congressman Jim Wright of Fort Worth, the Trinity River Project was officially authorized for construction. (LBJ, in fact, used the issue to try to force Amon Jr., by then publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, to fire reporter Bascom Timmons, according to historian Robert Caro. They agreed to a phasing out of Bascom Timmons.)
It’s no wonder Houston leaders — especially Roy Hofheinz — were so insistent about keeping major league baseball out of North Texas, given all the commerce DFW had tried to take from them. (Of course, that had nothing to do with the canal.)
The ambitious $1.6 billion canal plan envisioned a 200-foot-wide, nine-foot-deep barge canal stretching from the Gulf to Dallas–Fort Worth, complete with 21 locks, three dams, and raised bridges to accommodate barge traffic, as well as lots and lots more mosquitos.
The plan eventually died on the vine in the mid-1970s.
Fort Worth and Dallas, however, eventually got their port of entry in the form of an industrial airport.
Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport has been everything and more that its visionaries anticipated more than 35 years ago, becoming the dominant logistics hub for the southwestern U.S.
That’s all part of a report released this week by the Texas Comptroller’s Office, which showed that AllianceTexas accounted for $834.6 million in trade in 2024, up 550.7% from 2016.
This vast inland port serves as a vital link in the nation’s supply chain, channeling freight from Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Houston via intermodal rail to Mexico’s nearshoring operations — and moving more than half of all U.S. freight tonnage that passes through Texas.
Since its inception, AllianceTexas has attracted $16.3 billion in total investment — $15.2 billion from the private sector and $1.1 billion from the public sector — and has supported approximately 137,000 jobs statewide.
The project has also generated $4.17 billion in cumulative property taxes since 1990, including nearly $344 million in 2024 alone, benefiting cities, counties, and school districts across Tarrant and Denton counties.
AllianceTexas is among 32 official ports of entry in Texas that serve as critical gateways to global trade. Ports of entry within the state of Texas accounted for $1 trillion in international trade in 2024, according to the study.
“Ports are key to Texas’ economic strength — they power trade, jobs and innovation,” said acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock on a stop Monday at AllianceTexas during his “Good for Texas Tour: Ports Edition.”
“AllianceTexas is a clear example of how forward-thinking infrastructure keeps our economy strong and competitive worldwide.”
Hancock, a Fort Worth native and former state senator, was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott as acting comptroller this summer after Glenn Hegar resigned to become chancellor of Texas A&M.
As the state’s chief financial officer, the comptroller oversees the state treasury, collects taxes, and provides accurate revenue estimates to guide the biennial legislative budgeting process.
Hancock is running for election to the full-time post, a four-year term, next year.
According to the report, the top export commodities by value from AllianceTexas in 2024 were machinery and mechanical appliances ($324.8 million), electric machinery and equipment ($276.6 million) and aircraft and spacecraft equipment ($116 million). The top import to the port was special classification provisions ($46.2 million) — commodities that have been returned after they have been exported, such as items used for exhibitions.
Alliance began as a bold experiment in public-private partnerships.
Hillwood, working with the FAA and the City of Fort Worth, launched AllianceTexas in 1989 around Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport — the world’s first industrial airport. The 27,000-acre master-planned development now spans northern Fort Worth and nearby cities, home to more than 500 global companies including FedEx, Amazon Air, MP Materials, Embraer, Gulfstream, Target, Henry Schein, and Topgolf Callaway Brands.
Hillwood Chairman Ross Perot Jr. and its president, Mike Berry, were also in attendance on Monday.
All of this area was akin to the wild frontier 40 years ago, all of it, except for cattle and horses, sound asleep seven days a week.
Today it’s an international economic hub, one of Texas’ two intermodal logistics facilities connecting air, ground, and rail.
That is, trade via three modes of transportation, except, notably, water.
It all worked out in the end. Amazing how that happens.
And there is a lot more meat on this bone.
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Far north Fort Worth has the largest industrial real estate construction pipeline in the country, according to data from CoStar Group.
This area, home to Hillwood’s 27,000-acre AllianceTexas, has 7.7 million square feet in the pipeline, with 20 ongoing projects.
That leads the country, followed by the suburbs north of Austin where Samsung has a huge new semiconductor fab in Taylor and a major data center campus is underway in Hutto.
Cody Gibbs, CoStar’s director of market analytics in Dallas-Fort Worth, said DFW overall leads the country in industrial tenant demand with 22.3 million square feet of absorption in the past 12 months and that Alliance is the largest submarket in the region.
“I think the development is going to be pretty steady, so long as the land and appetite is still out there,” he said.
The construction pipeline consists mostly of pre-leased and built-to-suit projects, according to CoStar, the largest being a 1.25 million-square-foot site in the Intermodal Logistics Center by NorthPoint Development. The company is building two buildings amounting to 1.95 million square feet.
Gibbs said there’s no denying Hillwood has a large influence on the area. Two of the three other top projects in the pipeline belong to Hillwood — the 1.15 million-square-foot Westport 24 and the 767,000-square-foot Alliance Westport 14, which Wistron Corp. purchased this summer. More is on the way: Hillwood plans to break ground on 1.1 million square feet between two projects in 2026.
Mike Berry, president of Hillwood and the man in charge of Alliance, said he is seeing more activity following Wistron’s announcement of locating its supercomputer production facility in coordination with Nvidia in north Fort Worth.
“I think we’re going to see more advanced manufacturing activity happen that we really haven’t seen before,” he said, noting a focus on technology, semiconductors and server/supercomputer manufacturing.
But Berry also said an unexpected sector growing in the area is film. Hillwood partnered with Taylor Sheridan to convert 450,000 square feet in Alliance to soundstages, which Paramount is using to film shows such as Sheridan’s “Landman.”
North Fort Worth also stands out as a major inland port, attracting many companies that move and distribute goods. AllianceTexas is home to the Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport and the BNSF Railway intermodal facility. AllianceTexas accounted for $834.6 million in trade in Texas in 2024, according to an Oct. 13 economic report from the Texas comptroller. AllianceTexas’ top exports in 2024 were machinery and mechanical appliances, electric machinery and equipment and aircraft and spacecraft equipment.
Alliance generated $10.21 billion last year in economic impact and $130 billion since 1990, according to a report from Hillwood.
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More than 90 years ago, civic leaders in Fort Worth and Dallas picked up a dream of predecessors of turning the Trinity River into a navigable waterway connecting the North Texas region to the Gulf of Mexico.
Or Gulf of America. Or whatever.
The idea actually began in Dallas in the 19-teens.
By 1930, Amon Carter wanted a piece of the action for Fort Worth. He and John Carpenter of Dallas were the driving forces in forming the Trinity Improvement Association to push for canalization of the river.
Carter and his Dallas counterparts kept the canal dream alive through the mid-20th century.
Their sons, Ben Carpenter and Amon Carter Jr., carried the torch through the 1950s and ’60s as the Trinity Improvement Association and the Trinity River Authority pressed Congress for funding.
By 1965, thanks in part to the support of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congressman Jim Wright of Fort Worth, the Trinity River Project was officially authorized for construction. (LBJ, in fact, used the issue to try to force Amon Jr., by then publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, to fire reporter Bascom Timmons, according to historian Robert Caro. They agreed to a phasing out of Bascom Timmons.)
It’s no wonder Houston leaders — especially Roy Hofheinz — were so insistent about keeping major league baseball out of North Texas, given all the commerce DFW had tried to take from them. (Of course, that had nothing to do with the canal.)
The ambitious $1.6 billion canal plan envisioned a 200-foot-wide, nine-foot-deep barge canal stretching from the Gulf to Dallas–Fort Worth, complete with 21 locks, three dams, and raised bridges to accommodate barge traffic, as well as lots and lots more mosquitos.
The plan eventually died on the vine in the mid-1970s.
Fort Worth and Dallas, however, eventually got their port of entry in the form of an industrial airport.
Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport has been everything and more that its visionaries anticipated more than 35 years ago, becoming the dominant logistics hub for the southwestern U.S.
That’s all part of a report released this week by the Texas Comptroller’s Office, which showed that AllianceTexas accounted for $834.6 million in trade in 2024, up 550.7% from 2016.
This vast inland port serves as a vital link in the nation’s supply chain, channeling freight from Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Houston via intermodal rail to Mexico’s nearshoring operations — and moving more than half of all U.S. freight tonnage that passes through Texas.
Since its inception, AllianceTexas has attracted $16.3 billion in total investment — $15.2 billion from the private sector and $1.1 billion from the public sector — and has supported approximately 137,000 jobs statewide.
The project has also generated $4.17 billion in cumulative property taxes since 1990, including nearly $344 million in 2024 alone, benefiting cities, counties, and school districts across Tarrant and Denton counties.
AllianceTexas is among 32 official ports of entry in Texas that serve as critical gateways to global trade. Ports of entry within the state of Texas accounted for $1 trillion in international trade in 2024, according to the study.
“Ports are key to Texas’ economic strength — they power trade, jobs and innovation,” said acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock on a stop Monday at AllianceTexas during his “Good for Texas Tour: Ports Edition.”
“AllianceTexas is a clear example of how forward-thinking infrastructure keeps our economy strong and competitive worldwide.”
Hancock, a Fort Worth native and former state senator, was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott as acting comptroller this summer after Glenn Hegar resigned to become chancellor of Texas A&M.
As the state’s chief financial officer, the comptroller oversees the state treasury, collects taxes, and provides accurate revenue estimates to guide the biennial legislative budgeting process.
Hancock is running for election to the full-time post, a four-year term, next year.
According to the report, the top export commodities by value from AllianceTexas in 2024 were machinery and mechanical appliances ($324.8 million), electric machinery and equipment ($276.6 million) and aircraft and spacecraft equipment ($116 million). The top import to the port was special classification provisions ($46.2 million) — commodities that have been returned after they have been exported, such as items used for exhibitions.
Alliance began as a bold experiment in public-private partnerships.
Hillwood, working with the FAA and the City of Fort Worth, launched AllianceTexas in 1989 around Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport — the world’s first industrial airport. The 27,000-acre master-planned development now spans northern Fort Worth and nearby cities, home to more than 500 global companies including FedEx, Amazon Air, MP Materials, Embraer, Gulfstream, Target, Henry Schein, and Topgolf Callaway Brands.
Hillwood Chairman Ross Perot Jr. and its president, Mike Berry, were also in attendance on Monday.
All of this area was akin to the wild frontier 40 years ago, all of it, except for cattle and horses, sound asleep seven days a week.
Today it’s an international economic hub, one of Texas’ two intermodal logistics facilities connecting air, ground, and rail.
That is, trade via three modes of transportation, except, notably, water.
It all worked out in the end. Amazing how that happens.
And there is a lot more meat on this bone.
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AllianceTexas, the 27,000-acre business hub in north Fort Worth, handled about $834 million in international trade in 2024, according to a report release Monday by the state comproller’s office.
That’s a roughly 405% increase from 2023, and an over 550% increase from 2016, according to the report.
Alliance has always been ahead of the curve, acting State Comptroller Kelly Hancock said during a small gathering to announce the numbers.
While figures from Alliance developer Hillwood estimated the campus has generated around 66,000 jobs for North Texas, the state’s data indicate the that number is closer to 136,780.
Hancock noted those jobs include businesses outside the AllianceTexas development that support businesses located in the corridor. Without Alliance, those jobs wouldn’t be there, he said.
The nearly 36 year-old port has anchored massive growth in north Fort Worth, attracting hundreds of businesses, thousands of homes, and generating billions of dollars in economic impact for North Texas.
The development includes massive warehouses from Amazon and Walmart, companies on the cutting edge of autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence development, and soon a new 450,000-square-foot film and television production campus from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan.
Hancock reflected on how the area has changed from ranch land to massive warehouses and homes powering the state’s economy.
“We’re just getting started,” he said.
The development’s location at the intersection of the freeways, railroads, and its airport is unique across the country, said Hillwood chairman Ross Perot Jr. “This is where you want to be,” he said. The development’s location makes it the primary point of entry for the southwestern United States due to rail networks connecting the Port of Houston to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the report said.
Those rail networks also enable Alliance to move roughly half of Texas’s freight tonnage, according to the report.
Alliance also benefits from a good relationship with state and local officials, Perot Jr. said.
“We’re working together to build the region, and if you live here we take that for granted,” he said. “If you go to a lot of cities, and a lot of states, the governor doesn’t pick up the phone.”
Perot Jr. credited President Donald Trump’s push to increase manufacturing capactity as a major opportunity for the development. The key now is make sure state and local officials get a slice of that pie as companies look to locate plants in the United States, he said.
“AllianceTexas continues to transform our region into one of the most dynamic inland ports of entry in the nation,” Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said in a text message to the Star-Telegram.
“Its network of air, rail, and highway connections attract investment, create high-quality jobs, and strengthen Fort Worth and North Texas’ important position in global commerce,” she said.
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Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock today released the results of a Comptroller’s office study examining the impact of AllianceTexas on the Texas economy. AllianceTexas is the primary port of entry for the southwestern United States, bringing shipped global goods directly from the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Houston via intermodal rail containers.
AllianceTexas is among Texas ports of entry that serve as critical gateways to global trade. Ports of entry within the state of Texas accounted for $1 trillion in international trade in 2024, according to the study, with AllianceTexas accounting for $834.6 million in trade, up 550.7 percent from 2016.
“Texas ports are more than points on a map; they’re economic engines for our state,” Hancock said on a stop of the Good for Texas Tour: Ports Edition. “AllianceTexas is a prime example of how innovation and infrastructure come together to strengthen our economy, support thousands of good jobs and keep Texas competitive on the global stage.”
AllianceTexas is one of Texas’ two intermodal logistics facilities connecting air, ground and rail, allowing businesses to take advantage of trade via all three modes of transportation.
The top export commodities by value from AllianceTexas in 2024 were machinery and mechanical supplies ($46.2 million), electric machinery and equipment ($276.6 million) and aircraft and spacecraft equipment ($116 million). The top import to the port was special classification provisions ($46.2 million) – commodities that have been returned after they have been exported, such as items used for exhibitions.
For more information on Texas ports, visit the Comptroller’s website.