At least 100 new permanent full time jobs are headed to the Texarkana area thanks to the latest expansion at the TexAmericas Center in Bowie County, Texas.

TexAmericas Center’s Board of Directors recently approved agreement documents with Lionchase Holdings, INC., a privately-held asset management firm, at its board meeting.

Lionchase Holdings, Inc., has agreed to build a 200,000-square foot cold storage facility on TexAmericas Center (TAC), one of the largest mixed use industrial parks in the United States with over 12,000 acres. The project is expected to create a minimum of 100 permanent, full-time jobs and a bring a minimum of $20 Million investment.

“This cold storage project will result in good jobs for the greater Texarkana region,” said Boyd Sartin, Chairman of the TexAmericas Center Board of Directors, “TexAmericas Center is remaining focused on the organization’s vision to create 12,000 jobs for this region, and we are excited to take another big step towards this goal.”

Lionchase Holdings’ proposal includes a state-of-the-art cold storage facility with Frigitek and energy-saving technologies. Building features include: 55’ ceilings, over 135,000 sf of refrigeration and freezer floor space, dry storage, blast freezing, pre-cooling, and 3PL processing and packaging services. The facility will service the public and be professionally managed by cold storage industry specialists.

“The exciting element of this cold storage project is the spurred interest it will create among other linked industries within the food processing cluster who need access to cold storage supply chain services,” said Scott Norton, Executive Director / CEO for TexAmericas Center, “We anticipate that this development will attract additional leads from food processors, manufacturers and distributors to locate to the greater Texarkana region.”

Ken Brown, managing partner of Lionchase Holdings, INC., toured the TexAmericas Center property in November and chose a site on the TAC East Campus at 650 Lamar Street. The project and site visit was a direct result from Eric Voyles, Executive Vice President and Chief Economic Development Officer for TexAmericas Center, marketing the property at the 2017 Business Facilities executive conference, LiveXchange.

“We have really focused on increasing our marketing efforts during the past year; As a result, we have seen an increase in leads and site visits to the footprint. Our next step in moving this project forward will be to market the available cold storage space to businesses and highlight our concept for a 500 Acre TexAmericas Center Food Processing Park.” Eric Voyles, Executive Vice President / CEDO for TexAmericas Center

Construction for the cold storage facility is slated to start this fall with a planned completion timeline of 18 months for the new facility.  The anticipated start of Operations will be by December 31, 2019. Lionchase will be represented by Chris Copenhaver, SIOR with Cushman and Wakefield, a leading global real estate services firm.  Mr. Copenhaver, who is the North American Co-Lead for the Food & Beverage Advisory Practice Group within the Logistics & Industrial Services Platform of Cushman & Wakefield, has begun marketing efforts to pre-lease the cold storage facility.  Interested companies should contact Mr. Copenhaver directly at the Atlanta office.

Additionally, TexAmericas Center will initiate an email campaign focused on a targeted list of companies and other location advisors within the cold storage supply chain and site selection industries.

About TexAmericas Center

Located in the Texarkana metropolitan area, TexAmericas Center owns and operates one of the largest mixed use industrial parks in the United States. With roughly 12,000 development-ready acres of land and about 3 million square feet of commercial and industrial product, TexAmericas Center services the four states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) markets. Texas is the #1 state for business in the United States of America because of its regulatory environment, tax policies, and workforce quality, along with exceptional educational resources, infrastructure, and quality of living.

Founded in 1997, TexAmericas Center has the operating capabilities of a municipality but functions more like a traditional real estate development company, offering customized real estate solutions. In addition to controlling our own zoning and permitting processes and sustaining the life cycle of public infrastructure on the complex, TAC has the capability to lease, build-to-suit, or facilitate Greenfield owner-constructed projects in a timely and efficient manner. At TAC, we streamline leasing and manage government development processes all through a single point of contact. Our customers benefit from faster market entry by resolving zoning, permitting, inspection, and state and local incentive programs solely through our organization.

TexAmericas Center is a qualified New Market Tax Credit census tract, designated HUBZone and home to Foreign Trade Zone #258. Additionally, the Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC) designated a 101 acre site on TexAmericas Center’s central campus as the first S.T.A.R. Site in Texas (Sites That Are Ready for construction to begin), advancing speed to market for our customers. Tenants of TexAmericas Center tend to be private business owners and corporations seeking flexible and cost effective space solutions.

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