Richardson off to a fast start in 2014

Through the first third of the year, completed Richardson expansion and relocation projects doubled the average four-month output of new or retained jobs and commercial real estate occupancy for the previous five years:  

The big projects that pushed jobs and square foot occupancy to double the five-year averages for four months were State Farm’s February announcement of an additional 500,000-square-foot building at CityLine and Raytheon’s March announcement of a 1,700-employee campus in Richardson.

State Farm’s fourth building at CityLine will accommodate another 2,500+ Richardson employees, if the same employee to square foot ratio for the 1.5-million-square-foot Phase I prevails. It will bring its total Richardson workforce near or over 10,000. Occupancy of the three-building, 1.5-million-square-foot Phase I State Farm development will begin late this year and continue through the first half of 2015.

Raytheon culminated a multi-year search in selecting CityLine for the relocation of its current campus on Jupiter Road just north of the LBJ Freeway. Construction will begin on the three-building, 489,000-square-foot campus this summer and occupancy will occur in late 2015. Intelligence & Information Services (ISS) is the Raytheon business unit making the move. Its engineering and technical workforce has a major focus on cyber-security. The Richardson campus will be an “Engineering Hub” that complements the Space & Airborne unit’s 3,000-strong manufacturing and assembly facility in McKinney, and the 2,000-employee semiconductor-related contingent on the north side of the Texas Instruments campus in Dallas. Upon completion of the Richardson facility, Raytheon’s North Texas workforce of 8,000 will be aligned along the Highway 75 Corridor.

REDP has extended its marketing outreach to both coasts in 2014. April visits to the Silicon Valley, that included Mayor Laura Maczka and City Manager Dan Johnson, enabled Richardson to thank companies like Cisco that have local operations, and to develop new leads. REDP also participated in Governor Perry's marketing trip to New York City in April and met with a number of relocation prospects as well as site selectors.

The pace of new prospect activity is at the highest it has been in over a decade, and Richardson is well-positioned to capture its share of all the great business that is making a move.