Fort Worth Business Press, June 2, 2014 Vol. 26, No. 21 | Page 11

photos by alyson peyton perkins

fwbusinesspress.com | June 2 - 8, 2014

11

Members of the Society of Commercial Realtors listen to Mike Berry at the Colonial Country Club May 28.

Speaking at a May 28 Society of Commercial Realtors Breakfast at Colonial
Country Club, Berry expressed uncertainty about the local impact of the
$5 billion effort to expand the Central
American canal. Since 1914, the canal
has allowed shippers much quicker passage between Pacific and Atlantic oceans
than navigating south around the South
American continent.
The expansion project is expected to
reach fruition in 2015.
For the first time since its opening a
century ago, the 48-mile channel will
double its capacity with two new sets of
locks, or equipment allowing ships to
be raised or lowered between stretches
of water of varying levels.
Currently, the existing ship lane is not
deep or wide enough to accommodate
the larger vessels. A new lane will allow
ships three times larger than vessels currently moving through the canal.
So what’s Hillwood’s stake in a multibillion-project so far south of the United States? That rests with imports and
exports passing through North Texas
and whether volumes will rise or fall
when the expanded canal opens.
Los Angeles and Long Beach ports in
California, which regularly ship goods
to AllianceTexas, are among ports nationwide in retrofit mode, with some
requiring millions of dollars to fulfill
dredging and other strategies to accommodate the larger vessels and make
their ports competitive with the expanded canal.
While some fear the canal will steer
traffic away from those ports, others
aren’t so sure.
“Is it a threat or an enhancement?”
said Berry, skeptical that the expansion will boost the volume of imported
goods while hopeful that it could boost
U.S. natural gas exports to Europe and
Japan.
“We think that could be one of the
benefits of the Panama Canal when
you see it as a major [source] for export
growth in Texas, not so much import
growth,” Berry said.
Still, Berry said Hillwood Properties is

loyal to existing U.S. ports.
“From our standpoint, we’re tied to
LA-Long Beach [ports] through our
BNSF connection and that’s our port,”
said Berry, referring to Fort Worth-based
BNSF Railway Co., which moves goods
in and out of its AllianceTexas intermodal facility and offers direct Asian imports and exports from the West Coast.
“We’re hitching our wagons to the fact
that the West Coast to Texas connection
is still going to be a strong growth corridor in the future and the Panama Canal
is not going to have a huge impact.”

Is Walmart expanding at Alliance?
Already making a different kind of
impact is Walmart.com’s e-distribution
center at Alliance. And according to
Berry, Walmart wants more space for
its 800,000-square-foot facility that
opened late last year.
“They’re getting ready to expand.
They’re trying to keep up with Amazon
with e-commerce,” said Berry, while not
revealing specifics. “Walmart is the