A German industrial connector manufacturer is eyeing far southeast Fort Worth for a multi-phased expansion that could bring more than 700 new jobs and a $192.7 million investment to the city, though company officials caution the deal is far from done. HARTING Inc. is weighing whether to build a new campus near Wichita Street and Interstate 20, a project that would include corporate offices, manufacturing space, and cable assembly production.
The proposal came into public view when the Fort Worth City Council received a presentation on the plan during its September 1 work session, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Under the framework outlined to council members, HARTING would need to invest at least $192.7 million by December 2031 and create at least 700 full-time jobs by December 2034, with those positions paying $87,000 in average annual salaries. The company also plans to create 189 technical and corporate jobs as part of the buildout, which envisions three buildings totaling 700,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
In exchange, Fort Worth has proposed a 10-year tax abatement that would waive up to 65% of HARTING's incremental real and business property taxes, the newspaper reports. That kind of arrangement is authorized under Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code, which lets municipalities and counties grant property tax abatements of up to a decade on new real property improvements and business personal property inside designated reinvestment zones, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
Why Fort Worth, and Why Not Yet a Done Deal
HARTING has run its U.S. headquarters out of Elgin, Illinois for decades, and the Star-Telegram's reporting makes clear that the Fort Worth proposal does not guarantee the company will relocate. Other locations under consideration reportedly offer more convenient access to overseas shipping routes, a real factor given that HARTING imports about 40% of its components, per the presentation described in the same report. HARTING did not return a request for comment on its plans, the paper notes.
The Elgin campus has anchored HARTING's American operations since the company established its U.S. presence in 1986, and the site still employs around 188 workers as the company's Americas headquarters and custom connector manufacturing plant, according to HARTING Technology Group. Founded in Espelkamp, Germany in 1945, HARTING generated €1.1 billion in global revenue in its most recent fiscal year and employs roughly 6,500 people across 14 manufacturing plants worldwide, per case-study data published by NTT DATA. The company is best known industry-wide as the inventor of the Han heavy-duty connector series, a benchmark component for industrial electrical transmission in machinery, railways, and renewable energy systems, according to Ruilianxin Technology.
A Booming Americas Business Looking for Room to Grow
The timing lines up with a surge in HARTING's North American business. The company reported a 33% year-over-year revenue increase across the Americas in 2026, fueled by rising demand tied to industrial automation, electrification, and AI-driven infrastructure, according to a release distributed via PR Newswire. HARTING has taken a similar growth path before, having expanded its Latin American manufacturing center in Silao, Mexico to more than 700 employees after outgrowing its original footprint there, the same release notes.
The site under discussion sits along a freight corridor near Wichita Street and I-20 that connects to I-820 and has already seen dedicated municipal water and sewer upgrades, according to the City of Fort Worth. That kind of infrastructure investment is part of why the location fits the city's updated Tax Abatement Policy, which explicitly favors manufacturing facilities, headquarters relocations, high-wage job creation, and projects inside designated economic revitalization zones, per the city's economic development department.
How the Numbers Stack Up Against Recent Fort Worth Deals
HARTING's proposed $87,000 average salary requirement would exceed recent comparable deals the city has pursued. Fort Worth's City Council considered a seven-year, $10.9 million abatement package last month to compete for Carrier Corp.'s $433.8 million HVAC plant, which pledged 495 jobs at a $75,000 average salary, as Hoodline previously reported. Fort Worth also created a 10-year abatement zone for Siemens' $190 million, 500,000-square-foot electrical component plant, which opened in 2025 with projected average salaries topping $63,000 by 2026.
Those deals sit within a much larger incentive picture across the region. Active tax abatement agreements throughout Tarrant County in fiscal year 2025 were projected to secure roughly $4.64 billion in corporate capital investment and require the creation or retention of nearly 2,470 full-time jobs, according to county figures. HARTING's proposed 700-job, $192.7 million commitment would represent a sizable addition to that portfolio if the company ultimately chooses Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth City Council is scheduled to consider the tax-abatement proposal at its September 29 meeting, when members will formally weigh whether to extend the incentive package. Until then, the company's final decision — and whether Elgin's decades-long hold on HARTING's U.S. headquarters will end — remains unresolved.
