FTZ Board Gives Texas Hubs Top Honors

DENTON COUNTY, TX-The Foreign Trade Zone Board’s 68th annual report to Congress named the Alliance Global Logistics Hub the top U.S. General Purpose Foreign Trade Zone in the country, based on admittance of more than $4 billion of foreign goods. Also making the list’s top five were the Port of Houston Authority and Westport Economic Development Corp. in El Paso.

Stephen Boecking, vice president of business development with Alliance developer Hillwood Development Co. LLC in Dallas acknowledges he was somewhat surprised by the rankings, which reflect 2006 figures, the most recent analyzed. “This is the first time we’ve been ranked number one,” he comments. “We don’t have an ocean. But the railroad is our ocean.”

He says outstanding rail service to Alliance, located north of Fort Worth, was one reason for the high flow of foreign goods into the area. Additionally, “Alliance is a one-day truck drive to 48 million Americans. We have intermodal rail, international air cargo service and we’re right on the Interstate 35-NAFTA highway,” Boecking tells GlobeSt.com.