DENTON, TX-Dirt's just started flying on an 80,000-sf call and data center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Denton. The project, which will consolidate two Denton offices, delivers in April 2002, culminating years of waiting for the government to proceed with the development.
McLean, VA-based Harwood and Associates is acting as developer and has recently closed on a 11 1/2-acre tract near the intersection of Loop 288 and Spencer Road for the build-to-suit project. Harwood in turn has leased the building to the General Services Administration, the federal government's overseer for leased sites and building projects.
The tract had been part of 47 commercially zoned acres held by the Dawson family of Denton, John St. Clair, senior vice president of Henry S. Miller Commercial, tells GlobeSt.com. St. Clair and Paul Harmon Sr., another Henry S. Miller Commercial senior vice president, have represented the seller. Matthew Coit, senior associate for the Staubach Co. in Dallas, has acted on behalf of the buyer, Denton Plaza Partners LLC.
St. Clair says the project has been one of those “on again, off again” deals that have been a couple of years in the making. Glenn Garcelon, FEMA branch manager in Denton, agrees. The undertaking, Garcelon tells GlobeSt.com, will enable FEMA to relocate from a 40,000-sf converted hospital along University Drive in the city's northern sector. The leased site had been intended from the onset to be a temporary location. FEMA also leases about 45,000 sf at 1104 Dallas Drive in Denton. The North Texas city also is home to FEMA's Region VI, but that facility is not part of the consolidation and will remain at its N. Loop 288 location, GlobeSt.com has been told.
The FEMA Processing Center is one of three in the US plus there is another similar operation in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Denton centers employ 165 permanent workers, but that number has spiked to as many as 1,100 during disaster response situations, says Garcelon. Each year, the FEMA centers field a combined average of two million calls for processing during federally declared emergencies. The centers act as intake points for the toll-free numbers that are aired during emergencies.
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