Ross Perot Jr., chairman of Hillwood and chairman of the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Fort Worth is seeing an industrial and manufacturing boom. He spoke Wednesday at the Fort Worth Chamber's Leaders in Business series. Perot said his team has done industrial work at Alliance for 40 years and has never seen a market like this now.
Perot said new projects tied to artificial intelligence, data centers and the defense industries are a key reason for growth at AllianceTexas. He said companies in the data boom are bringing a second wave of business to Fort Worth. Data centers need local factories, warehouses and logistics operations to make, store and move their equipment, he said. Perot said Fort Worth's long history in manufacturing and logistics makes it a good fit for that work.
Perot said AllianceTexas has completed about 6 million to 7 million square feet of deals in the past 12 months. He said the development has created about 10,000 new manufacturing jobs related to the data center supply chain. Hillwood began developing AllianceTexas, a 27,000-acre master-planned development in north Fort Worth and southern Denton County, in 1985. Perot also said suppliers need new buildings and that about 80% of the nation's building stock is older than 10 years.