Beyond Dallas: A Business Owner’s Guide to Choosing the Right Central DFW Industrial Location
A Strategic Guide for Manufacturing, Distribution, and Industrial Business Owners
Brent Pennington CCIM, Metroport Commercial Group, eXp Commercial
For many industrial businesses considering North Texas, the location decision eventually becomes framed as a choice:
Dallas or Fort Worth?
But there is another option. Locate between them. Central DFW occupies one of the most strategically connected industrial geographies in North Texas. DFW International Airport sits at its center, surrounded by major highways, established industrial districts, corporate employment centers, and communities capable of drawing workers from both sides of the Metroplex.
For the right business, this can create an important operating advantage. A company may not need to be particularly close to downtown Dallas or downtown Fort Worth. It may need to reach customers throughout both. A distributor may value access to multiple highways more than proximity to one interstate. An importer may want to locate in the Foreign-Trade Zone No. 39 to defer import duties.
An international manufacturer may care about DFW Airport, freight forwarders, suppliers, executives, and technicians arriving from around the world. A regional service company may simply need to put its facility somewhere that allows trucks and employees to move north, south, east, and west without starting every trip from the edge of the Metroplex.
That leads to the central question of this guide:
Would your business benefit more from access to the entire DFW region than from being located primarily on either the Dallas or Fort Worth side? This is not a market report. It is a guide to understanding when centrality itself becomes an industrial location strategy.
Key Takeaways
- Central DFW’s greatest industrial advantage is often connectivity to the metroplex and the world rather than proximity to a single city.
- DFW International Airport creates an international transportation, cargo, corporate, and supplier ecosystem that affects far more than air-freight users.
- Coppell, Grapevine, Irving, Lewisville, Grand Prairie, and Arlington may all be described as Central DFW, but they solve different operating problems.
- Central locations can reduce travel imbalance across the Metroplex, but mature industrial areas may also bring higher land costs, limited expansion opportunities, older buildings, and competing land uses.
- Businesses should determine whether they are benefiting from centrality. A company whose employees, customers, and freight all point in one direction may not find an advantage to being in the middle of DFW.
Central DFW Industrial Locations at a Glance
| If Your Business Prioritizes… | Start by Considering… | Investigate Carefully… |
| DFW Airport, air cargo, international connectivity, and executive access | Coppell / Grapevine / DFW Airport | Cost, available inventory, airport-related land constraints, expansion |
| Cross-Metroplex highway access and established industrial inventory | Irving | Building functionality, traffic, redevelopment pressure, long-term expansion |
| North-central access, I-35E, SH 121, distribution and manufacturing | Lewisville | Building age, redevelopment, employee commute patterns, future site control |
| Regional distribution, manufacturing, large industrial districts, Dallas/Fort Worth balance | Grand Prairie / Arlington | Which side of the area best fits the operation, freight patterns, workforce, building type |
These markets share a common geographic advantage: They sit in the middle. But the value of being in the middle depends upon what the business needs to accomplish.
DFW Airport, Coppell, and Grapevine: When Global and Regional Connectivity Matter
It is difficult to discuss Central DFW industrial real estate without beginning with DFW International Airport. The airport is not simply a passenger facility located between Dallas and Fort Worth. It is a major economic and logistics engine.
DFW Airport reports service to more than 270 nonstop destinations and worldwide freighter service from 19 cargo airlines. The airport estimates that air cargo contributes more than $20 billion annually to the regional economy, and more than 150 freight forwarders operate within the DFW area. For certain industrial businesses, that infrastructure can fundamentally change the location equation.
Airport Proximity Is About More Than Air Freight
The most obvious beneficiaries are companies moving high-value, time-sensitive, international, or air-freighted products. But the airport’s influence is broader. Consider an industrial company whose executives travel frequently. Or a manufacturer with technicians, engineers, vendors, and customers regularly flying into North Texas. Or an international business establishing its first U.S. manufacturing or distribution operation. For those companies, being 10 or 15 minutes from DFW Airport can have operational value that will not appear in a rent comparison.
The airport also anchors a significant ecosystem of logistics providers, freight forwarders, aviation-related companies, corporate operations, and industrial facilities. That ecosystem can matter as much as the runways.
Coppell: Airport Access with a Mature Industrial Base
Coppell occupies an unusually strategic position immediately northeast of DFW Airport. Its western side includes substantial light-industrial and commercial development influenced directly by the airport. The city’s proximity to I-635, SH 121, and the airport makes it particularly attractive to distribution, logistics, corporate-industrial, and higher-value industrial operations.
The trade-off is scarcity. Coppell is a mature community. A business seeking substantial acreage or long-term expansion capacity may have difficulty reproducing the advantages of an existing Coppell location. That makes an important distinction: A great location for today’s operation may not automatically be a great location for tomorrow’s expansion.
Grapevine: Airport Adjacency with Different Land-Use Pressures
Grapevine also benefits enormously from its relationship with DFW Airport and the regional highway system. But Grapevine is not simply another version of Coppell. Its tourism, hospitality, retail, residential, and commercial uses create different land-use pressures. Industrial users need to pay close attention to the specific property, zoning, truck access, surrounding uses, and long-term suitability of the location. The advantage remains compelling for the right business: DFW Airport is effectively next door.
Particularly Worth Considering When
Your company depends upon international travel, air cargo, freight forwarders, time-sensitive distribution, executive travel, aviation, medical logistics, high-value products, or suppliers and customers arriving frequently through DFW Airport.
Potential Friction
Land cost, limited expansion capacity, mature development patterns, airport-related land-use considerations, traffic, and the availability of properties matching specialized industrial requirements.
Three Questions to Ask
- How often does our business use DFW Airport for freight, employees, customers, vendors, or executives?
- What economic value does being located near the airport create for us?
- If we grow significantly, can we remain in this location, or will scarcity eventually force another move?
Irving: When Centrality Becomes the Strategy
If DFW Airport is the geographic anchor of Central DFW, Irving may be one of the clearest examples of the centrality strategy.
Irving sits between Dallas and the airport and is connected by SH 114, SH 183, SH 161/President George Bush Turnpike, and I-635. That highway network gives an industrial business the ability to move in multiple directions without committing itself entirely to either side of the Metroplex. For a company serving customers throughout DFW, that can be extremely valuable.
Irving Is More Than Las Colinas
People outside industrial real estate often associate Irving primarily with corporate offices and Las Colinas. That can obscure its substantial industrial base. Irving-Las Colinas identifies logistics, distribution, aerospace, aviation, and manufacturing among its prominent industries, and the area contains a significant inventory of industrial and flex space.
The industrial proposition is therefore unusual. A company can potentially combine industrial operations with proximity to major corporate employment centers, DFW Airport, professional services, hotels, restaurants, and a broad regional workforce. That combination may appeal particularly to businesses whose industrial operation includes a significant corporate, technical, sales, or customer-facing component.
The Centrality Test
But centrality should not become an assumption. Suppose 70% of your employees live east of Dallas. Or nearly every truck leaves the facility heading south on I-45. Or the company’s primary customers are concentrated in Collin County. In those cases, being geographically central may look attractive on a map while adding unnecessary miles to the actual operation. Centrality has value only when the business uses it.
Particularly Worth Considering When
Your company serves customers across DFW, values airport proximity, operates a regional distribution or service network, combines industrial and corporate functions, or needs employees to reach the facility with public transportation and from multiple parts of the Metroplex.
Potential Friction
Mature building stock in some areas, traffic congestion, redevelopment pressure, property-specific functionality, land costs, and limited long-term expansion opportunities.
Three Questions to Ask
- Do our employees, customers, and suppliers come from multiple directions?
- Would a more central location materially reduce drive time or operating friction across the organization?
- Are we choosing Irving because of what it does for the business or simply because it looks central on a map?
Lewisville: When North-South and East-West Connectivity Intersect
Lewisville occupies another strategically important position in Central DFW. I-35E provides north-south connectivity while SH 121 connects the area toward DFW Airport, Coppell, Grapevine, and the broader northern Metroplex. That intersection creates a different industrial proposition from Irving. Lewisville can provide access north toward Denton, south toward Dallas, east toward the North Dallas and Collin County employment base, and west toward DFW Airport and Tarrant County. For companies whose business stretches across northern DFW, that can be a significant advantage, but it doesn’t connect on the east west corridor of I30.
An Established Industrial and Employment Base
Lewisville is not an emerging industrial location. The city has multiple major employment centers, and the southwestern portion of the city has long contained distribution warehouses, manufacturing, professional office, and companies involved in international trade. The Business 121 corridor alone contains a substantial industrial base. This matters because Lewisville can offer something different from a greenfield growth market: existing industrial infrastructure in a highly connected northern location.
Manufacturers and distributors can potentially access employees from Denton County, northern Dallas County, western Collin, and eastern Tarrant counties without moving to the outer edge of the Metroplex. However, as mature communities evolve some commercial and industrial corridors eventually face redevelopment pressure. Older buildings may need significant reinvestment.
Particularly Worth Considering When
Your business values I-35E and SH 121 access, serves northern DFW, draws workers from multiple northern counties, operates manufacturing or distribution, or needs reasonable access to DFW Airport without being immediately adjacent to it.
Potential Friction
Older building stock in some areas, redevelopment pressure, traffic, limited large-site availability, and the long-term compatibility of certain industrial uses with surrounding development.
Three Questions to Ask
- Does our business need both north-south and east-west access across northern DFW?
- Where will our workforce come from as Denton County and the northern Metroplex continue to evolve?
- If we buy here, will the surrounding land uses remain compatible with our operation over the long term?
Grand Prairie and Arlington: When Serving Both Dallas and Fort Worth Matters
Continue south from DFW Airport and another major Central DFW industrial environment emerges. Grand Prairie and Arlington occupy the physical space between Dallas and Fort Worth in a way few other industrial markets do. This geography is crossed by major east-west and north-south transportation routes and includes one of the region’s most established industrial concentrations. For businesses serving the entire Metroplex, the location can be difficult to ignore.
Grand Prairie and the Great Southwest Industrial District
Grand Prairie’s industrial identity is closely connected to the Great Southwest Industrial District. The city describes the district as one of the country’s major industrial concentrations, with a large portion of its approximately 80 million square feet located in Grand Prairie. The significance is not simply the amount of real estate.
Large industrial districts create ecosystems. Employees become accustomed to industrial work. Suppliers are located nearby. Truck routes have become established. Municipal infrastructure develops around employment centers. Service companies learn how to support industrial users. For a manufacturer, distributor, or service-industrial company, that established ecosystem can reduce some of the friction associated with entering a newer market.
Grand Prairie also occupies a genuinely central position: its eastern boundary is relatively close to Dallas, its western side approaches Arlington, and DFW Airport lies just to the north. That can make it especially useful for companies whose customers or employees are distributed across both sides of the Metroplex.
Arlington: More Than Entertainment and Stadiums
Arlington is nationally identified with sports, entertainment, and major attractions. Its industrial economy can therefore be easy to overlook. That would be a mistake. Arlington contains substantial manufacturing, distribution, aerospace, and industrial activity, particularly around the Great Southwest area and other established industrial districts.
The city specifically targets advanced manufacturing, aerospace, logistics, supply chain, and technology-related investment. A major current example is the E-Space project at Arlington Municipal Airport: a planned 480,000-square-foot manufacturing and headquarters facility associated with satellite production and more than 2,000 projected high-wage jobs. The significance for a business owner is not the project itself. It demonstrates that Arlington’s industrial proposition extends beyond traditional warehousing into advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and technology.
Where Grand Prairie and Arlington Diverge
It would be a mistake to treat Grand Prairie and Arlington as interchangeable simply because they are adjacent. Grand Prairie can offer particularly strong access to Dallas, DFW Airport, and the established Great Southwest industrial ecosystem. Arlington can provide stronger access to the Fort Worth side and routes to the south while still maintaining central Metroplex positioning. A business should therefore examine where within this central industrial belt its actual operating gravity lies. Ten or fifteen miles can matter.
Particularly Worth Considering When
Your business serves both Dallas and Fort Worth, operates regional distribution, manufacturing, aerospace, service sectors, or if it needs access to a broad labor pool and an established industrial ecosystem.
Potential Friction
Traffic, age of buildings in established industrial districts, differences in municipal zoning, redevelopment pressure, and choosing the wrong side of the central corridor for the company’s actual operating patterns.
Three Questions to Ask
- Do we genuinely need to serve both Dallas and Fort Worth regularly?
- Which side of Central DFW contains more of our employees, customers, suppliers, and freight destinations?
- Would moving ten miles east or west materially change our operating efficiency?
Central DFW’s Real Advantage: Optionality
The strongest argument for Central DFW may not be any single highway, city, airport, or industrial district. It is optionality. An industrial company located near the center of the Metroplex can potentially reach: Dallas, Fort Worth, DFW International Airport, North Dallas, South Dallas, Alliance and the northern Fort Worth markets without beginning every trip from one extreme edge of the Metroplex.
That can create resilience. If customers change, the company may still be centrally located. If the workforce shifts, the business may be able to recruit from multiple directions. If suppliers change, multiple transportation corridors remain available. If the company serves the entire region, no single side of DFW necessarily dominates the location decision.
But optionality is not free. Central locations can come with higher real estate maintenance costs, mature buildings, limited land, traffic, and expansion constraints. The business must determine whether it receives enough value from centrality to justify those trade-offs.
Seven Questions to Answer Before Choosing Central DFW
1. Where Is the Geographic Center of Our Business?
Plot employees, customers, suppliers, freight destinations, and service calls. Do not assume the geographic center of DFW is also the center of your operation.
2. How Important Is DFW Airport?
Separate convenience from necessity. Does the airport affect freight, executive travel, technicians, customers, international suppliers, recruiting, or corporate operations? If it does, quantify that value.
3. Do We Need to Reach Both Dallas and Fort Worth?
Some businesses truly operate regionally. Others describe themselves that way while 80% of their activity occurs on one side of the Metroplex. Those companies should make different location decisions.
4. Where Does Our Workforce Live?
Central DFW can potentially draw employees from multiple directions. But commuting time remains a real constraint. A facility that appears central geographically may still be difficult for the employees the business most needs to retain.
5. How Much Does Traffic Variability Matter?
A location may look excellent based on a map but perform very differently at 7:30 a.m. or 5:00 p.m. Evaluate travel time, not simply distance.
6. How Much Room Will We Need in Ten Years?
Many Central DFW locations are mature. If the company expects to double in size, determine whether expansion means adding onto the existing facility, leasing an adjacent building, relocating within the same submarket, or eventually leaving Central DFW.
7. What Are We Paying For?
A central location may command a premium. Know what the business receives in return. If centrality reduces employee drive time, freight miles, executive travel, customer response time, or distribution costs, the premium may be justified. If it does none of those things, it may simply be expensive real estate.
Start With the Operating Map
Before searching for Central DFW industrial buildings, I would create a simple operating map.
Plot:
- Employees, Customers, and Suppliers
- Inbound freight and Outbound freight
- Service territory, and future growth
- Executive travel, and Airport usage
Then look at the pattern.
If those points pull the company in multiple directions, Central DFW may deserve serious consideration. If they overwhelmingly pull toward Dallas, Fort Worth, Collin County, South Dallas, or another specific corridor, the answer may be somewhere else. This is why industrial site selection should begin with the business. The building comes later.
Central DFW Is a Solution, not a Compromise
Central DFW should not be viewed simply as the compromise between Dallas and Fort Worth. For the right industrial business, it can be the preferred location precisely because it connects both. DFW Airport provides global connectivity. Coppell and Grapevine provide airport-oriented positioning. Irving provides cross-Metroplex access and a substantial corporate and industrial environment. Lewisville connects I-35E, SH 121, DFW Airport, and the northern employment base. Grand Prairie and Arlington provide established industrial infrastructure between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Those are different advantages. But they share a common theme: access.The business owner must decide whether that access creates enough operational value to make Central DFW the right place to operate.
Next: Fort Worth and the Western DFW Industrial Markets
The next guide in this series moves west. Fort Worth presents a different industrial geography from both Dallas and Central DFW. The discussion will include established Fort Worth industrial districts, Alliance and North Fort Worth, Denton and the I-35W relationship to Alliance, South Fort Worth and Mansfield, and the western growth corridor toward Aledo and Weatherford.
The central question will change again. Instead of asking whether the business benefits from Dallas-area proximity or Central DFW connectivity, we will ask: When does the scale, land availability, rail and freight infrastructure, manufacturing base, and westward/northward growth of Fort Worth become the stronger operating strategy?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is considered Central DFW for industrial real estate?
For purposes of industrial site selection, Central DFW can reasonably include the areas surrounding DFW International Airport and the industrial corridors extending through Coppell, Grapevine, Irving, Lewisville, Grand Prairie, and Arlington. The boundaries are operational rather than intended to duplicate any single brokerage firm’s statistical submarket definitions.
Why would an industrial company choose Central DFW?
The primary advantage is access. A Central DFW location can provide connections to Dallas, Fort Worth, DFW Airport, major highways, multiple labor pools, and customers across the Metroplex. That can be especially valuable for regional distributors, manufacturers, service companies, and businesses with international connections.
Is being near DFW Airport important if my company does not use air freight?
It can be. Airport proximity may also benefit companies whose executives travel frequently, receive international customers or vendors, employ traveling technicians, or depend upon the broader logistics and corporate ecosystem surrounding DFW Airport. If the company rarely uses those advantages, however, airport proximity may have limited operational value.
Is Irving a good industrial location?
Irving can be particularly attractive to companies that value central Metroplex access, proximity to DFW Airport, multiple highways, and access to a broad workforce. Property-specific factors such as building functionality, traffic, expansion capability, and cost still need to be evaluated.
Is Lewisville considered Central DFW or North Dallas?
It can reasonably be viewed either way depending upon the purpose of the analysis. For industrial site selection, Lewisville’s connections to I-35E, SH 121, DFW Airport, Coppell, and the broader northern Metroplex make it useful to consider within Central DFW.
Why consider Grand Prairie or Arlington for manufacturing?
Both cities offer central Metroplex positioning and established industrial infrastructure. The Great Southwest Industrial District provides a substantial industrial ecosystem, while Arlington also has meaningful manufacturing, aerospace, logistics, and technology activity. The specific location should be evaluated against workforce, freight, customers, and building requirements.
Is Central DFW always more expensive than outer industrial markets?
Not necessarily, and costs vary significantly by property and submarket. However, mature central locations often involve greater competition for land and may offer less expansion capacity than outer growth markets. Occupancy cost should therefore be evaluated alongside transportation, labor, travel, and other operating costs.
How do I know whether Central DFW is right for my company?
Map where employees, customers, suppliers, freight, and business travel originates and terminates. If the operation consistently pulls in several directions across the Metroplex, a central location may create meaningful value. If most activity is concentrated in one direction, another DFW industrial corridor may be more efficient.
About the Author
Brent Pennington, CCIM, ALC | Advisor, Senior Vice President
Metroport Commercial Group, eXp Commercial
Brent Pennington, CCIM, is an Advisor, Senior Vice President with Metroport Commercial Group (eXp Commercial), specializing in tenant representation, buyer representation, and the sale of excess property for industrial business owners and chain operations. A Baylor University graduate with degrees in Accounting and Entrepreneurship, Brent brings a rare combination of financial literacy and operational credibility to every client engagement.
With 35+ years of prior experience as a business owner in manufacturing, distribution, and retail, he understands industrial real estate from both sides of the transaction, as the operator who occupied the space and as the advisor who guides owners through dispositions, acquisitions, leasing strategies, and sale-leaseback structures. That dual perspective gives his clients something most brokers cannot offer counsel grounded in how a building functions as a business asset. Brent also serves as a mentor to newer commercial brokers and as an expert witness in litigation.
As a member of NTCAR and holder of the CCIM designation, the commercial real estate industry’s most rigorous analytical credential, and Accredited Land Consultant, Brent is a recognized thought leader on North Texas industrial market trends, owner exit strategies, and CRE wealth preservation.
Connect with Brent at 817-999-8266 | brent@metroportcommercial.com | metroportcre.com
The content on this site is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, tax, or investment advice. Commercial real estate transactions involve complex variables that differ by property, market, and individual circumstance. Readers should consult qualified legal, tax, and financial professionals before making any real estate or business decision. Brent Pennington, CCIM, and Metroport Commercial Group (eXp Commercial) make no representations regarding the accuracy or completeness of information presented and assume no liability for decisions made in reliance on this content. All market information reflects conditions at the time of publication and is subject to change.
