Bandera Ventures:::Press Releases

Dallas Cowboys Break Ground on New Merchandising Hub

June 30, 2009 - DFW Airport, Texas – Dallas Cowboys have the newest football stadium in America. Now they are set to build an equally impressive merchandise headquarters to service fan demand for Cowboys apparel and goods.

Bandera Ventures and the Dallas Cowboys announced today that they are breaking ground on a 400,000 square-foot warehouse, production, and headquarters facility for Dallas Cowboys Merchandising, Dallas Cowboys Pro Shops, and Blue Star Graphics & Design. The new facility will be located at 2500 Regent Blvd., at DFW Airport. This new facility represents a consolidation and expansion of their existing Cowboy operations.

Known for its quality and attention to detail, Dallas-based developer Bandera Ventures previously built a 103,845 square-foot facility for the Cowboys at 1011 Royal Lane at DFW Airport. In addition, the headquarters for the Merchandising Group, Pro Shop and Blue Star Graphics & Design is currently located in a 47,000 square-foot facility at 4251 W. John Carpenter Freeway. Additionally, the Blue Star Graphics & Design group is located in a 30,000 square-foot facility at 14800 FAA Road in Centreport. This expansion represents a doubling of their existing operations.

“This move was caused by the passion and love that the fans in the Metroplex and across America have for the Dallas Cowboys,” said Bill Priakos, Vice President of Merchandising for the Cowboys. “When we purchased our original building on Hwy. 114, I never thought that we could outgrow it and yet a little over a year later, we needed an additional 100,000 square-feet. With the acquisition of Blue Star Graphics & Design, this gave us the ability to be even more responsive to our fans. No other team in the NFL has this ability to respond to its fans’ needs.”

Mr. Priakos stated “The Cowboys selected this site because of its central location to the metroplex, its adjacency to DFW Airport and the triple free port, and the outstanding foreign trade zone operations. The Cowboys source product from throughout the world and the foreign trade zone is uniquely qualified to support these efforts and made this an ideal location.”

John Terrell, Vice President for Commercial Development at DFW Airport, said, “We are excited that the Dallas Cowboys organization has chosen DFW Airport as its merchandising headquarters and are thrilled to continue our relationship with the professional developers at Bandera. DFW Airport is always focused on its customers and it is great to work with two other organizations that share the same standards of excellence.”

Bandera Ventures is a privately held commercial real estate development and investment firm owned by Chuck Anderson, Pryor Blackwell and Tom Leiser, three former senior Trammell Crow development executives. Bandera specializes in office, industrial and retail development. In addition, they have successfully developed a number of build-to-suits for a broad array of companies. The firm is just finishing a build-to-suit for CTI, a division of Sikorsky Helicopters.

“Our tenants are our fans and happily, they keep coming back,” said Mr. Leiser. “Like the Cowboys, we want our customers to have a fantastic experience, so we stick to the Golden Rule and treat our tenants as we would want to be treated,” said Mr. Leiser. Evidently, brokers and tenants agree; since its inception in 2003, Bandera has been involved in 44 projects. These include 31 facilities, consisting of 10 facilities for Atmos Energy, nine Whataburgers and two facilities each for the Dallas Cowboys, Plains Capital Bank, Comerica Bank, ADVO, and United Technologies.

Mr. Leiser gave praise to the tireless efforts of the DFW Commercial Development and the Survey and Building Department “because of the unique circumstances of this project, the DFW Airport staff had to burn the midnight oil in order to keep it on schedule and the entire team was extremely helpful.”

Financing for this project was provided by American Bank of Texas and the General Contractor will be Burton Construction.