Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham stood alongside Hillwood executives and Ellis County officials on October 19 to break ground on Ranger 35, a sprawling industrial development in Waxahachie that organizers say will eventually include 3.2 million square feet of logistics space. The project's first building alone will span 1.2 million square feet on roughly 90 acres, and developers are billing it as the tallest spec building in Dallas-Fort Worth history.
The ceremony marked more than just dirt moving. According to the Waxahachie Sun, the General Land Office projects Ranger 35 could create as many as 10,000 permanent, on-site jobs, a figure the agency has also tied to up to $1.5 billion in regional economic activity, as reported by einpresswire.com. Buckingham told the crowd that “today's groundbreaking is about turning those Texas advantages into action,” framing the project as proof that the state has what it takes to build at home.
Matt Hyman, Hillwood's south-central market leader, gave the opening remarks and thanked the city of Waxahachie for welcoming the company, according to the Sun's account of the ceremony. He also credited the project's brokers, including Matt Dornak, for helping bring the deal together. Hillwood has said it's committed to making Ranger 35 a successful partnership for the city, county and investors involved.
State and Local Officials Weigh In
Maurice Osborn, district director for state Rep. Brian Harrison, presented a certificate of recognition to Hillwood Investment Properties during the event, calling the Ranger 35 Commerce Center groundbreaking a significant investment in Ellis County, per the same account. Harrison himself sent congratulations and wishes for great success to Hillwood, the Sun reported. Construction partners involved in the project have indicated Ranger 35 could eventually bring multiple business entities together under one commerce center model.
Buckingham, for her part, leaned into the state's broader economic pitch. She said Texas has “the land, resources, energy and workforce to build the future at home,” and separately argued that the state “has built America for generations” and intends to keep building, manufacturing and creating opportunity. She added that working with developers like Hillwood puts land to work, brings investment to communities and creates good-paying jobs.
A Second Phase Already Planned
Ranger 35 isn't stopping at its first building. A planned second phase will add two more structures, buildings two and three, located across the street behind the initial site, contributing roughly two million additional square feet of development once complete. That expansion would bring the full project close to its advertised 3.2-million-square-foot footprint.
The Waxahachie groundbreaking is the latest in a string of General Land Office-backed industrial announcements. Per einpresswire.com, a Goose Creek development in Harris County has already generated nearly 600 temporary construction jobs, almost all filled locally, and could eventually support as many as 700 full-time jobs and an estimated $150 million in annual regional economic output depending on the eventual user. The agency, which manages more than 13 million acres of state land and minerals to generate revenue for the Permanent School Fund, has tied both projects to its Texas Engine initiative, which works with developers, manufacturers and economic development organizations to strengthen domestic manufacturing.
Texas Engine Initiative Extends Beyond Industrial Parks
Buckingham announced the Texas Engine: Fueled, Fed and Fortified initiative in August, with goals that stretch well beyond warehouse construction. The program aims to expand energy production, support Texas agriculture and safeguard strategic minerals important to manufacturing and national security, working through partnerships with private industry across the state. It promotes oil, natural gas, geothermal and nuclear energy alongside strategic minerals and the state's coastlines.
The initiative's reach has already shown up elsewhere this month. The General Land Office initiated two mineral leases covering more than 1,000 acres in Hudspeth County, and it has partnered with Texas A&M University and the Texas Farm Bureau to provide agricultural training on state land.
Ranger 35 Lands in a Red-Hot Industrial Market
The timing lines up with a historically tight DFW industrial market. Dallas-Fort Worth industrial vacancy fell to 8.1% in the second quarter of 2026 as net absorption reached 9.0 million square feet, according to warecre.com. Overall asking rents climbed to a new high of $9.19 per square foot annually, up 13.2% year over year, while the region had 29.8 million square feet of industrial space under construction, equal to 2.9% of total inventory. First-half 2026 deliveries and net absorption each totaled 13.6 million square feet, and build-to-suit projects accounted for 11.6 million square feet, or 38.8%, of everything under construction.
Leasing figures for the quarter vary depending on the source. Warecre.com, citing Cushman & Wakefield, put second-quarter DFW leasing at 20.5 million square feet and first-half leasing at 40.3 million square feet, while Hoodline's prior reporting cited a figure of 21.1 million square feet for the quarter, up 23.4% year over year. Either way, the direction is the same: demand for industrial space in the region has stayed strong.
Hillwood is no stranger to betting big on that demand. The company is already building a $40 million warehouse nearby at Crossroads Logistics Park in Midlothian, a 1,008,328-square-foot speculative building that's the third piece of a planned six-building development. State filings list an estimated construction start date of October 10 and a targeted completion of September 15, 2027, for that project. Hillwood's long-running AllianceTexas development, meanwhile, has generated more than $142.9 billion in cumulative regional economic impact and created over 73,000 direct jobs across 64.7 million developed square feet since 1989, according to the same report.
