Alliance added 4,000 jobs in 2015 as economic impact nears $60 billion

More than 4,000 jobs were added at AllianceTexas in far north Fort Worth in 2015, bringing the development’s employment numbers above 45,000, a new report shows.

Since it started with the opening of Alliance Airport in 1989, Hillwood Properties’ 18,000-acre mixed-used development has generated $59.69 billion in economic impact to North Texas, including $4.32 billion last year, according to an annual report presented to the City Council Tuesday.

Last year’s impact was down slightly from 2014, when the economic impact was placed at about $4.75 billion.

But 2015 was a big year for Alliance in terms of new projects, including groundbreaking on the $1 billion Facebook data center and Walmart.com’s announcement for another e-commerce center at Alliance Center North II, Hillwood said. Alliance straddles Interstate 35W.

Facebook bought 110 acres from Hillwood earlier in 2015. But by mid-December it added another 39 acres for a possible expansion beyond the planned 750,000 square feet of data center space already on the drawing board.

“A great deal of growth continues to take place at AllianceTexas,” said Mike Berry, Hillwood’s president. Last year, he said, “will be remembered as a great year for AllianceTexas. Over the last 25 years, we’ve gone from wheat fields to job fields.”

In a key development to future growth, the City Council in August awarded a $61.9 million contract to a Virginia-based construction company to complete the runway extension project at Alliance Airport. The airport is owned by the city, but operated by Hillwood.

The longer runway will allow bigger planes from huge global cargo carriers to take off and land at Alliance, boosting business in Fort Worth and the region. The expansion is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

The report, updated annually by Insight Research Corp., measures the impact of total investment and total jobs at the development. Alliance has industrial, Class A office, aviation, retail, residential, medical and multifamily real estate projects. The majority of Alliance is located in Fort Worth.

In 2015, Alliance paid about $140.5 million in property taxes to eight public entities. Since 1989, it has paid $1.58 billion in taxes.

“It’s getting big,” Berry said. “It wasn’t too long ago we celebrated passing the $1 billion total taxes paid number. It’s now over $1.5 billion.”

Fort Worth received $25.8 in property taxes in 2015 and $304 million so far. Tarrant County received $26.8 million last year and $285.8 million in total.

In all, about $8.4 billion has been invested at Alliance so, with 92.5 percent, or $7.8 billion, coming from the private sector and the remainder in public money. Those figures represent monies invested in schools and other public facilities as well.

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Alliance added 4,000 jobs in 2015 as economic impact nears $60 billion."