Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Dallas has major plans to take over from Chicago the title of premier logistics hub.
There are plans on the way to create the International Inland Post of Dallas to benefit from the Panama Canal Expansion, Port of Houston Expansion, and upgrades to ports in Mexico.
The are banking on these changes in conjunction with Alliance and the DFW airport will make the area THE Logistics and Distribution Area in the US.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,034,220 times
Reputation: 4047
Cool plan and all.
But yeah it's not going to happen when you look at the real numbers (and percentages) of how far ahead Chicago is. Most of the logistical points for a city and trade & commerce are road work (trucking) that is where most of the revenue comes from. And the only city that can potentially rival Chicago there is Indianapolis due to the network of Interstates existing there. Dallas-Fort Worth will make some very key strides but its not going to overtake Chicago, especially when Chicago is over a third (37%) ahead of the very next city in terms of transportation & commerce. Yeah right, you have to be insane to envision that without a test.
However, maybe a few decades from now, I can see it overtaking Chicago, but nothing in the next 15-20 years or so. That's just way to soon.
The development companies building the 6,000-acre Dallas Logistics Hub in southern Dallas County have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize their debts, saying the severe recession stalled their ambitious plans.
But Richard Allen, the project's main backer, vowed to steer it through bankruptcy and fulfill his vision of turning it into a thriving freight transportation center.
"The fundamentals of the park are still there," Allen said, citing the area's railroads, highways and available labor force. "We're very committed to the project."
The Dallas Logistics Hub occupies center stage in a broader inland port project, which local leaders have billed as southern Dallas County's most promising engine for economic development.
The inland port is designed to handle a flood of trade between Asia and the United States, receiving trainloads of containers from California ports and distributing them by road, rail and air to customers nationwide. Allen has said it would generate tens of thousands of jobs.
But the severe recession slammed consumer spending, knocked down trade volume - and torpedoed the local real estate market.
Leasing of Dallas-area industrial space went from a net gain of 5.2 million square feet in 2008 to a net loss of 1.8 million in 2009, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
"When you're not doing deals or selling land or leasing buildings, it's tough to generate cash flow," said Allen, who said his investment in the project is about $85 million.
Too little cash flow
The bankruptcy filing was made by DLH Master Land Holding LLC and Allen Capital Partners LLC, both led by Allen. It does not include organizations of the Allen Group, Allen's holding company, or the group's other entities in Kansas or California.
According to the bankruptcy filing, the Dallas Logistics Hub has about $170 million in debt backed by collateral, plus another $8 million in unsecured debt. But it has cash flow of only about $5 million a year.
Yeah it's not going to happen when you look at the real numbers (and percentages) of how far ahead Chicago is. Most of the logistical points for a city and trade & commerce are road work (trucking) that is where most of the revenue comes from. And the only city that can potentially rival Chicago there is Indianapolis due to the network of Interstates existing there.
They were banking on two new highways in the Houston area, the expansion of 35 and some other ones.
also they are planning of improving rail service from the port of Houston to Dallas (shuttling the containers straight from the ships to Dallas by train and distributing by truck and rail from there)
Dallas isn't centrally located in the way Chicago is, and Chicago already has a lot of the infrastructure in place. Dallas' airport is obviously more "impressive" than O'Hare, but that's only because it's the size of Manhattan. 7 non intersecting runways > 7 intersecting runways. But as Danny said, Chicago is much further ahead and centrally located. Texas can only do so much
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,034,220 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by HtownLove
They were banking on two new highways in the Houston area, the expansion of 35 and some other ones.
It's already happening, within the a few months to the next 2 years, Houston will have a new Interstate. Interstate 69 (I-69) it's also coined as THE "NAFTA Superhighway" for being the premier route for trade between Mexico, United States, & Canada. That will be Houston's biggest plus this decade in terms of road infrastructure.
An excerpt:
Quote:
Back in November, TxDOT released some reports from the I-69 Corridor Segment Committees. Houston lies in segments 2 and 3, and one of the recommendations from the segment 2 and 3 committees is to immediately resign US 59 from Rosenberg to Cleveland as I-69.
I-69 Corridor Segment Committees (http://www.txdot.gov/public_involvement/committees/i69/default.htm - broken link)
These are ambitious and are the "first steps" to setting themselves up for overtaking Chicago, both Dallas-Fort Worth & Houston will overtake Chicago eventually. But it wont be happening as soon as they predicted, unless they know something that we (I) don't about their prospective plans.
Texas will become the premier transportation & commerce state and probably is already (which is not surprising), but neither Houston or Dallas-Fort Worth will rightfully surpass Chicago for a while. It's a very large gap to fill in right now in immediate terms. That is like me saying "I'm going to finish Undergrad with a 3.755" when I still have a few semesters left. I will finish undergrad for sure, but I cant claim yet that I will "surpass" my goals or not.
I think anything that is long term saying "X will surpass Y" is just marketing, anyone with eyes that see's the total freight & tonnage Chicago has, it will occur to them. The most profitable methods for transportation & commerce are (in order): Trucking (which is Chicago & Indianapolis), freight rail (Chicago, Kansas City, Atlanta, & Dallas-Fort Worth, in this order), seaport (Houston, Chicago, & (N/A) for Dallas-Fort Worth), & Airport (Memphis, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, & Houston).
Long way to go. And I haven't seen any plans for either Texas city to add any Class I level rail roads, and that really pushes it very far back.
Last edited by DANNYY; 02-01-2011 at 02:59 PM..
Reason: Tweak.
Being a transit and distribution hub is fine, but in terms of overall economic/quality-of-life boost, it doesn't "translate" as well as other industries.
Memphis is a major cargo hub, but Memphis as a whole has not really prospered from this.
Laredo is a critically-important and very large staging area for imports from Mexico, but it remains very poor on a per capita basis.
Southern Louisiana's ports manage an enormous volume of ships, but look how much good it does New Orleans... and so on...
Chicago should get its rail act together and bank on that. Hey, does anyone know how well connected Chicago is to the Windsor-Quebec City corridor in Canada? It seems like it should have a fairly straight shot through Michigan to Detroit and from there on to that corridor. Like, why not high speed rail through it? Maybe cut through to Buffalo and the Northeast Corridor. Just a true Chicago-Quebec City corridor would be huge. God, that would be so hot.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
