City Approves Deal For New $17M L'Oreal Distribution Center
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Wednesday morning the Dallas City Council gave all the necessary approvals to move ahead with the construction of a new $17 million L'Oreal USA distribution center in South Dallas.
While L'Oreal conducted a nationwide search for possible site locations, the city of Dallas certainly sweetened the deal. The city council approved roughly $4.5 million worth of incentives for L'Oreal, including a tax abatement and an economic development grant worth nearly $2 million.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said the city would also pay the company back for making road and infrastructure improvements to the city's International Inland Port.
"We're partners now so we will help you and we will expect you to help us as well, and be good corporate partners in this process. We're excited about it," he said.
The International Inland Port of Dallas is a public and private partnership that has a goal of making the Dallas area one of the nation's biggest distribution points for domestic and international shipping and receiving.
"This is very important. The Inland Port is going to be a driver for this city for decades to come and because of that we want to make sure we get the ball rolling now that the economy is starting to turn," Rawlings said.
L'Oreal chose North Texas as the location of the new distribution center partially because of its proximity to a manufacturing plant the company has in Mexico.
Mayor Rawlings is eager for the groundbreaking.
"We're excited," he said. "We're gonna work quickly to get this done and get you up and going."
Up and going indeed… construction on the new facility is slated to begin next week, on October 1. The new 513,000 square-foot facility will sit on some 50 acres near Telephone Road and Lancaster Avenue.
The new North Texas regional distribution hub is expected to add some 75 jobs to the area, within two years of opening. According to the Dallas City Council agenda, the average annual salary at the plant will be around $34,500.
"$34,000 is not a high-paying job, but it's a start," Dallas councilman Tennell Atkins admitted, but added enthusiastically, "We're talking about 100 jobs $40 million worth of investment, 50 acres of land."
The majority of plant construction is scheduled to be complete by December 31, 2013.
L'Oreal is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty products company and has reported worldwide sales of more than $25 billion.
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