A small town southeast of Dallas is building its reputation as a stealth industrial engine.
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Wilmer, Texas, located 15 miles southeast of Dallas, is a small town of roughly 3,500 people, but its reputation as a logistics center keeps growing.
Retailer Ace Hardware announced plans this week to double its industrial space to 900K SF in Wilmer by expanding its existing 450K SF Retail Support Center.
This expansion will bring 250 construction jobs to the Dallas County community, and it isn't even Wilmer's first headline-stealing deal of the year.
In April, Logistics Property Co. inked an agreement for a tenant to occupy 1.1M SF within its Wilmer-based Southport Logistics Park.
The small town previously attracted the likes of Fortune 500 companies, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Whirlpool and Medline, according its economic development corporation.
So what makes Wilmer a popular attraction in the commercial real estate industrial space?
For starters, the city currently houses five industrial parks and boasts access to a workforce of 2-plus million, according to the Wilmer Economic Development Corporations. It has access to the DFW Metroplex, land and highway systems as well.
Small towns like Wilmer are increasingly being selected as industrial hubs, as land runs out (and prices soar) in bigger cities and technology changes the requirements for labor. Like Wilmer, many have the access to highways that is crucially important to distribution centers.
The Retail Support Center for Ace Hardware already supports 300 retail locations in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Once the second build-out is complete, the site will accommodate 70 new jobs.
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