TJX Cos. (NYSE: TJX) will build a 1.6 million-square-foot distribution center in El Paso, Texas, city leaders said during a press conference on Monday.
The new warehouse/distribution center will create 950 jobs in El Paso, handling up to 240 inbound and outbound trucks per day, said Mayor Dee Margo.
“The initial phase of the distribution center will be approximately 1.6 million square feet; once it’s fully built out, it will be over 2 million square feet,” Margo said. “There will be approximately 950 jobs created over a five-year period; 150 of them will be managerial and 800 warehouse positions.”
Massachusetts-based TJX Cos. operates more than 4,500 stores in nine countries, including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, as well as the HomeGoods and Homesense stores.
The distribution center will be on 200 acres of land owned by the El Paso International Airport, around 15 miles from the United States-Mexico border.
El Paso’s proximity to Mexico played a major role in TJX’s decision to locate the distribution center there, according to Jon Barela, CEO of the El Paso-based The Borderplex Alliance.
“The Borderplex Alliance will be taking advantage of what I think to be numerous reshoring opportunities primarily from China and Asia, as our supply chains become much more condensed,” Barela said during the press conference.
Barela added, “Our organization right now has a record level of vetted projects, across a range of business sectors. Everything from health care, to manufacturing, now to logistics. The reshoring opportunities that are coming forth are truly remarkable. One-third of our opportunities now are from reshoring opportunities, from China and Asia and other parts of the world.”
Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced in July it was building a 625,000-square-foot fulfillment center in El Paso.
The city of Juárez, Mexico, which lies just across the border from El Paso, has more than 300 maquiladoras — export factories in Mexico run by foreign companies — employing around 340,000 workers, according to data from the Asociación de Maquiladoras-Index Juárez (Index Juárez).
The Mexican state of Chihuahua, where Juárez is located, has a total maquiladora workforce of 459,215.
The El Paso border crossing ranked No. 28 for total trade among the U.S.’s 450 airports, seaports and border crossings through July, according to data from WorldCity.
El Paso’s trade totaled $21.97 billion from January through July 2020 and $79.12 billion for all of 2019.
Top imports from Mexico into the U.S. include computers, passenger vehicles, insulated wire and cable, and commercial vehicles. Top exports to Mexico include computer chips, computer parts, medical equipment, gasoline and auto parts.
City officials did not say when the new TJX distribution center is scheduled to be completed.
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