UPS Seeks Tax Incentives for Texas Shipping Hub

John Taggart/Bloomberg News

UPS Inc. is seeking tax incentives to create a regional shipping hub with up to 1,400 jobs in an industrial warehouse district in southeast Arlington, Texas.

Under the deal, which will go before the City Council on March 28, UPS would make a $105 million investment and the city would refund 85% of taxes assessed against business personal property for seven years.

UPS ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

Bruce Payne, the city’s economic development manager, called the deal “a major get” for the city. He said the project has been in the works for several months and required besting competition.

“You don’t get a lot of million-square-foot deals coming through with that many employees and investment,” Payne said. “We’re very fortunate.”

UPS would lease a warehouse of 1 million square feet that is nearing completion in the Arlington Commerce Center, an industrial complex of several large facilities.

UPS plans to almost immediately expand the building by 200,000 square feet, Payne said, adding that a million square feet covers the area of 23 football fields.

He said the hub would probably be operating in a year but that it would take perhaps a few years for the workforce to reach 1,400 employees. “They’ll ramp it up over time,” Payne said.

A spokeswoman at UPS headquarters in Atlanta had no specific comment on the project.

“We’re making investments and capital improvements around the globe,” said UPS public relations director Susan Rosenberg. “But there’s nothing specific to announce in Arlington.”

She said UPS has several hubs and other processing and shipping operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including an air hub at DFW Airport and its largest local hub in Mesquite.

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