Lego Systems, the North American division of the LEGO Group, plans to consolidate two distribution centers from Alliance in far north Fort Worth to a $52 million facility at the northwest corner of Interstate 35W and Northeast Loop 820, according to a city report. The site is one of two locations that the City Council is being asked to support for designation to qualify for a foreign trade zone tax exemption. The council is expected to approve letters today to the U.S. Foreign Trade Zone Board.
TTI, a global distributor of electronic components owned by Berkshire Hathaway, wants the tax exemption on 45.8 acres in the Mercantile Center business park, where it plans a $40 million, 600,000-square-foot distribution facility. TTI bought the land, at the northwest corner of Beach Street and Meacham Boulevard, in December of 2014. At that time, it declined to disclose details about the project. Robert Sturns, Fort Worth’s interim economic development director, said the two projects are the second and third requests for tax-exemption status since the Commerce Department in 2010 approved an expansion of the foreign trade zone at Alliance to include the entire Alliance Corridor, along both sides of Interstate 35W from Denton to just south of Northeast Loop 820.
Foreign trade zones are supervised by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They are considered outside the customs territory of the U.S. for the purposes of duty payment. Duty payment on the foreign merchandise is not required until it enters the U. S. for domestic consumption. Exel, a third-party logistics company, is seeking the foreign trade zone status for the Lego facility under construction at Mark IV Parkway and Cantrell Sansom Road. The facility is scheduled to be completed in March.Exel handles U.S. distribution of Legos from Alliance locations in Roanoke and Haslet, facilities that total about 1.1 million square feet. Lego will lease the new facility from Exel. The new facility will be about 1.4 million square feet and Exel expects to have about 250 jobs there.
TTI employs about 870 workers locally. It has a warehouse in the Mercantile park, a corporate office on Northeast Parkway and a sales office on Mark IV Parkway.
Sandra Baker: 817-390-7727, @SandraBakerFWST