The City of Corpus Christi, Texas, has approved an agreement allowing Scannell Properties, a national developer, to enter into an option agreement for 57 acres (23 hectares) of vacant, fully improved land on the grounds of Corpus Christi International Airport. Companies locating there will benefit from the enterprise zone status of the newly created Corpus Christi International Airport Business Center.

   Obviously, airports are for getting people where they need to be outside the region, as much as they are magnets for industrial development. And that is among the top drivers of Fluor Corp.'s 2005 decision to relocate its headquarters from Aliso Viejo, Calif., to the Las Colinas development in Irvine, Texas, just east of DFW. Fluor commissioned Koll Development Co. to develop the 26- acre (10.5- hectare) property on which a 120,000- sq.- ft. (11,150- sq.- m.) office complex now stands.
   "Bear in mind that 60 percent to 65 percent of our revenues are generated by the oil and gas industry, and about 80 percent of our clients are located either on the East Coast or in Texas," says Stuart Essery, Fluor's director of corporate real estate. "From a geographic point of view, it made more sense to be located nearer where they are. And being in Texas gives us a two- hour- more- favorable time zone from which to deal with those clients."
   Essery says Fluor's growth now and for the foreseeable future is outside the United States, particularly in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. "DFW Airport gives us very good transportation access to those markets and to the East Coast, and obviously to Texas. Those were the driving forces behind our relocating to the Dallas area."