Over the last few years, a wave of growth has swept through the communities surrounding Dallas. Located east of the metro, the City of Terrell knew its time in the sun was coming soon. And rather than wait for opportunity to arrive, Terrell leaders have diligently prepared for the development that is now underway.
From housing to site development to infrastructure projects, Terrell’s landscape is changing day by day. With its strategic location and natural logistics capabilities including immediate access to rail and multiple major highways such as Interstate 20, US Hwy 80, SH 34 and SH 205/FM148, Terrell has long attracted companies seeking to benefit from these advantages.
“Terrell serves as a major intersection for the region, being just 25 miles east of downtown Dallas,” said Bill Baumgardner, executive vice president at VanTrust Real Estate, LLC and head of the company’s Texas office, in a statement. “Companies will continue to be drawn to the city’s numerous shovel-ready sites with excellent connectivity to Highway 80 and I-20. The connectivity and Terrell’s strong labor demographics are a winning formula for the industrial market.”
VanTrust, Walmart Distribution, NFI Industries, AutoZone, J.S. Helwig & Son and Nucor Building Systems are among the many businesses that call Terrell home.
“We have a can-do spirit in Terrell,” says Terrell Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Chairman Bruce Wood. “If we have the opportunity to land an industry or land a business, we work well as a community. And when I say that I’m not only talking about the Economic Development Corporation, but I’m talking about the City of Terrell, Kaufman County, the Terrell Independent School District, and Trinity Valley Community College. We all work together to make good things happen in Terrell, and good things mean growth.”
Terrell’s historic downtown district is currently undergoing a massive revitalization that will introduce new retail, restaurant, dining, housing and event spaces to the community.
Every Tuesday morning, all the entities Wood mentioned, as well as local business leaders and other community officials, gather to update plans and address any roadblocks they’ve encountered.
This “all-hands-on-deck” approach to economic development helped foster Kaufman County into the No.1 fastest growing county in the nation. From July 2022 to July 2023, Kaufman County’s population grew by 7.6%, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“It’s a communication process that has yielded good benefits for us,” says Wood. “And that doesn’t mean that everybody agrees all the time. We may have differences of opinion, but we are able to work through those and make sure that anything that needs to be discussed can be handled and try to get everybody on the same page. We are able to get that accomplished by just keeping mobile channels of communication open.”
Closing the Distance
One of Terrell’s largest contributions to Kaufman County’s growth is its job creation pipeline.
“With a population of about 20,000 people, we have 14,000 jobs and so we’re a regional hub for jobs in Kaufman County,” says Terrell EDC President Carlton Tidwell.
Many of those employed at companies in Terrell commute from Dallas or other communities in the county.
Terrell is home to a robust network of manufacturing and logistics and distribution companies.
To increase the opportunities for employees to work closer to home, and for employers to have a more localized workforce, the EDC has been working to grow the city’s housing sector.
In 2022, M&D Real Estate’s Property Management division began constructing a new rental community, Woodlands Terrell, located just north of Interstate 20 at Rosehill Road. This development is expected to boast 300 three- and four-bedroom, single-family homes.
Last December, Dallas developer Mehrdad Moayedi announced plans for a new development that is expected to add 2,390 new homes as well as 25 acres of multi-family dwellings, 18 acres of retail space, 177 acres of industrial space and 39 acres of arboretum space. There will also be an additional 18 acres designated for school and civic purposes, 18 acres for an open amenity area and 136 acres for nature preservation.
“The new rooftops planned for the Terrell area are pretty incredible,” says Tidwell. “What we hope is that it will strengthen our already strong workforce. The EDC’s job in this will be to continue to create more opportunity for those people who are moving into the area and for those that are already working here but commuting.”
Bridging the Past and Present
While much of the community is ushering in the new, Terrell’s leadership is equally striving to honor the city’s roots.
Rather than constructing brand new buildings, the EDC has embarked on a downtown improvement program to revitalize the historic structures and storefronts at the city’s center.
“Some of the older buildings are being preserved and renovated and brought back to life,” says Wood. “Downtown improvement is a big priority for us. People love to go through the rural East Texas towns. We consider ourselves a gateway to the metroplex. If you’re heading west and if you’re headed east, we’ve kind of got you covered both ways.”
Even though the project is still in the early stages of development, there are plans for retail, restaurant, offices, housing and more to increase business and recreational opportunities in the city.
“We have a store that just opened up, Terrell Coffee Company, right in the middle of downtown,” adds Wood. “We have some facilities that are available for events that are getting quite a bit of use and as more and more people find out about those, I think we’ll see more and more of that kind of traffic.”
The buildings aren’t the only aspects of the downtown area that are receiving updates.
“The city has worked very hard to find the funding to redo the alleys that run parallel to highway 80 — I call them the old alleys,” says Wood. “The old alleys are now being transferred into new alleys, new paving and new drainage and new construction, and all that goes along with that.”
