Sharyland Business Park, on the Texas-Mexico border, is in the fourth-fastest-growing MSA in the country.

Blurring Borders
Mean Big Business

Sharyland Plantation is a 6,000-acre (2,428-hectare) master-planned community on the U.S.-Mexico border in the Texas cities of Mission and McAllen. The development includes 10 residential subdivisions, a growing retail sector, sports and entertainment facilities, a Hawthorn Suites extended-stay hotel, a 43,000-sq.-ft. (17,402-sq.-m.) medical diagnostics center and the most recent addition, a 75,000-sq.-ft. (6,968-sq.-m.) state-of-the-art call center occupied by T-Mobile.
        A critical segment of this burgeoning community is the Sharyland Business Park, a Class A, light industrial development with unique characteristics. According to Paul Curtin, project manager for Sharyland Plantation, the Sharyland Business Park offers all Class A industrial infrastructure, including a totally redundant loop-fed power grid from the on-site utility company, FTZ status, rail access, natural gas, and fiber optic communications. Curtin also notes that the combination of being located in the fourth-fastest-growing MSA in the country and the inherent demographic appeal of the area (45 percent of the population is under the age of 25) make the market ready to meet labor needs today and into the future. Sharyland Business Park is in a geographically prime location for all types of U.S. consumer goods distribution, with a comprehensive transportation system and a naturally bilingual population rounding out the features sought by many companies competing in today's international trade arena.
        "There continue to be tremendous build-to-suit opportunities available within Sharyland Business Park and all of the components critical to a successful site selection are here," Curtin notes. "If a company wishes to start building tomorrow, we have approximately 130 to 150 acres [53 to 61 hectares] ready to go. In addition, Sharyland Business Park has close to 1,500 acres [607 hectares] of land allocated for industrial development in the future."
        Of the 2.4 million sq. ft. (222,960 sq. m.) of existing space in the Business Park, occupancy runs at over 95 percent, and another 610,000 sq. ft. (56,669 sq. m.) of Class A buildings is currently under construction and will be delivered in the first half of 2004. Some well-known companies already calling Sharyland Business Park home are Bissell, Black & Decker, Corning, Panasonic, Jabil, Right Away Foods, and Symbol Technologies.
        Expect the big-name tenants to increase dramatically as construction begins this year on the Anzalduas International Bridge, which will provide a direct connection between the Sharyland Business Park and a corresponding 16,000-acre (6,475-hectare) mixed-use development in Reynosa Mexico. Scheduled for completion in 2006, the bridge will effectively combine all 22,000 acres (8,903 hectares) into a truly integrated international business community unlike any other in the United States.
        Curtin says that any developers are welcome to take advantage of build-to-suit opportunities within Sharyland Business Park. "We have already worked with national developers such as ProLogis, and several Texas developers including Five Star Development of El Paso, Miles Realty of El Paso, Argent Properties of Dallas, and Ridge Realty of Chicago," Curtin remarks. "Our demographics, general cost of doing business, and location on the U.S.-Mexico border make us a prime build-to-suit location for many different industries."

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