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Business is booming in the City of Carrollton.
During a Nov. 3 presentation at a city council work session Director of Economic Development Jenny Zeilfelder reported $182 million in private capital during the previous fiscal year. Of that amount, $172.9 million came from corporate projects and $9.57 million from retail rehabilitation projects. The projects collectively committed more than 2,100 jobs to Carrollton.
The city is currently building on its industrial strengths while pursuing a more diverse mix of employers and investments. Carrollton boasts 10.3 businesses per 100 residents. "Carrollton has a very strong industrial manufacturing base and that has been a real significant advantage for the community,” Zeilfelder said. “As we're looking ahead, we are also focused on the growing office presence, redevelopment and attracting a wider mix of employers in the future."
PennyMac was the previous year’s largest incentive agreement and project. The company took over the former AmeriSource building and will occupy approximately 300,000 square feet. It currently has about 500 employees, with more than 2,000 expected at full buildout.
AER Manufacturing was named as a major business retention project for the year. It is a longtime Carrollton company that continues to invest locally. The company operates eight facilities encompassing approximately 1 million square feet.
UNION Tech was another major business attraction, occupying 220,000 square feet for advanced manufacturing. Its industrial lease was recognized as the best industrial lease at the D CEO Commercial Real Estate Awards in March.
Energy Access Innovations was approved to move into flex space and convert it into executive office space for its headquarters operations. The company is expected to open in early 2027.
Other projects Zeilfelder mentioned that are expected to open soon include SOL Korean Grill, which took over a space that had previously sat vacant for 18 years, Island Vintage Coffee at the site of a former Chick-Fil-A, Double Oak Tack in downtown Carrollton and DK Village, a shopping center redevelopment at Josey Lane and Frankford Road. Each of these projects will rehabilitate existing real estate.
Zeilfelder stressed the impact that shopping within the city has on the local economy.
“When you shop in cities like Allen, McKinney and Frisco, you may help contribute to their economic development fund, which we're competing against,” she said. “It's just another good reason to shop locally in Carrollton first.”
During the previous fiscal year, the department recorded 121 business attraction engagements, hosted 25 delegations at city hall from around the world and conducted 39 business retention visits.
The department also updated its marketing and recruitment materials, including a site-selection resource and business resource guide.
For August, Zeilfelder cited nine businesses assisted, 14 general inquiries, one qualified lead, six responses to requests for information through the state and 20 business development activities. She also mentioned five business retention visits.
When those agreements were executed, the participating properties had a combined taxable base value of $167.5 million. Over the same period, Carrollton paid $5.19 million in cumulative property tax rebates. The properties now have a combined reported appraised value of $537 million, an increase of approximately $370 million.
Zeilfelder described Carrollton as having approximately 57 million square feet of commercial space, including 45 million square feet dedicated to flex and manufacturing uses. The city has more than 8,700 businesses and over 500 restaurants.
Carrollton’s occupancy rate is 95.1% for industrial, 94.6% for retail and 86% for office space. Zeilfelder compared Carrollton's industrial occupancy with the DFW average of 92.1% and with other nearby cities. Plano's office occupancy is 87.7%, industrial is 90.9% and retail is 93.5%.
“What this is saying, Carrollton is performing competitively, particularly in our industrial and retail,” Zeilfelder said. “We have also historically been a strong industrial and manufacturing community. Office represents a much smaller share of our inventory but there has been some encouraging momentum over the past year. We have risen five percentage points. When office has been struggling, that’s pretty spectacular to have.”
Carrollton has approximately 136,000 residents and 100,000 jobs, according to the presentation. Zeilfelder said 62% of people working in Carrollton commute from elsewhere, while 38% both live and work in the city. She said this metric sets the city apart from many of its suburban neighbors.
“We are a major employment center,” Zeilfelder said. “We are drawing workers into the city every day. That speaks to the strength of our commercial base and also signifies a role we play in the regional economy.”
One example of recent business development, Mayor Steve Babick highlighted the ACT-ION battery manufacturing plant, which held its ribbon cutting in Carrollton earlier that day.
He described the investment as potentially transformative for Carrollton, being a closed-loop, environmentally friendly manufacturing operation that could make battery production quicker and cheaper. The company is located near downtown Carrollton, along the rail corridor and Interstate 35, and is looking to leverage rail access.
“As I reflect on what our economic development team has done just in the last year, and how it's transformed since I was first selected to council, it is night and day,” Babick said. “I think we hear that from those companies that you cited coming to Carrollton.”
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