The City of Fort Worth will hear a plan to nominate an $11.2 million distribution center improvement project for the Texas Enterprise Zone Program at its Tuesday, May 9 meeting.
Dillard’s Inc., which has a distribution center in North Fort Worth at 4501 N. Beach St., says it plans to invest $11.2 million over the next five years at the site.
The Texas Enterprise Zone Program is an economic development tool for local communities to partner with the State of Texas to promote job creation and capital investment. An enterprise project is defined as a business that is nominated by a municipality or county and then approved for state benefits. If approved for the project,, Little Rock, Arkansas-based Dillard’s will be able to apply for for state sales and use tax refunds on qualified expenditures.
The department store chain said it plans to spend $5.2 million on facility maintenance and improvement projects, including the upgrade of shipping divert lanes, installation of a garment on hangar infield line, replacement of a refusal line, as well as the purchase of yard tractors used to move trailers within the facility property. In addition to these projects, Dillard’s is proposing to spend $6 million on a remodel of its pool stock area to support the replenishment of warehoused merchandise to the stores serviced by the Fort Worth Distribution Center. This remodel project will update the pool stock work
areas and provide new storage as well and provide new solutions for receiving, picking and shipping replenishment goods, according to information provided to the city by Dillard’s.
This investment will result in the retention of 540 jobs with an average annual wage of $50,000. The benefit for an Enterprise Project Designation is capped at 500 jobs. Dillard’s could be eligible for a maximum refund of $2,500 per job, distributed over the 5 year designation period. The maximum potential refund Dillard’s could receive is $1.25 million over the 5 year designation period.
The council will likely vote on the proposal at its May 16 meeting.