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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.
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