News Update
Global headquarters' construction begins at stalled Gateway site
Chris Beattie/Staff Photo -- Emerson Process Management officials and McKinney city representatives break ground at a ceremony Tuesday afternoon marking the start of construction of Emerson's Regulator Technologies global headquarters at the Gateway site in McKinney.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
McKinney took a more imprinting step Tuesday, right on the heels of the first step in several years toward continuing the long-awaited Gateway development.
Emerson Process Management's Regulator Technologies broke ground on its $25 million global headquarters on the north end of the Gateway site, at the U.S. Highway 75 and Sam Rayburn Tollway interchange.
"This Emerson project is a perfect example of how we are growing the community in a positive way," Mayor Brian Loughmiller said to a crowd of city staff, board members and Emerson employees gathered at the site. "We've been waiting a long time to do something with this site...and this site is primed for premier development activity as we work towards the vision for the city of McKinney."
The three-story, 128,000-square-foot headquarters, set to be complete by late next year, would be the second successful development at the 90-acre site, following the Collin College Higher Education Center that operates to the south, nearer the Tollway.
Last month, the city approved a new plan to finish the hotel-conference center at the front of the site, marked by a partly finished structure for about four years now. City staff and developers are finalizing agreements before construction continues on that project.
The Regulator Technologies facility will include offices, a customer-training center and a fitness center for about 130 employees in engineering, research and development, marketing, sales, finance and procurement.
Emerson Process Management, which currently operates in a 55-year-old former manufacturing plant about six miles north of Gateway, delivers automation and process-control technologies and services to oil and gas, power, refining, chemical and other industries around the world.
Its Regulator Technologies business offers more pressure regulator and relief-valve solutions than any other manufacturer, according to a company release.
The new headquarters will feature test and evaluation labs, including those for new metals/materials-testing and vibration-testing, and a "flow lab" that showcases its products.
The flow lab will consist of large, rechargeable tanks -- their capacity equal to that of two Olympic-size swimming pools -- that will run 14 flow-line pipes ranging from two to 16 inches in diameter.
"Imagine putting air equal to the exhaust of a 737 jet engine," said Randy Page, business unit president for Regulator Technologies. "That's the kind of velocity we're going to have going through those flow lines -- some pretty impressive stuff."
As the Gateway site's northern anchor, the facility is expected to bring in more than $16 million in tax revenue over the next decade, according to a recent economic analysis by Duff & Phelps.
It's the latest installment for a company that has economically and socially partnered with McKinney for 50 years. Emerson last year made close to $200,000 in donations to education, community welfare and arts institutions, such as the McKinney Education Foundation, The Samaritan Inn, McKinney Performing Arts Center, McKinney Food Pantry and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Collin County.
"They have stepped up every time they have been asked to step up in this community and to be a partner in philanthropic projects," Loughmiller said Tuesday.
Before city and company representatives, donning hard hats and shovels, ceremonially broke ground, they emphasized why Emerson chose the Gateway site for its new headquarters.
"It's extremely fitting that we have Emerson as part of this," Keith Clifton, McKinney Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) chair, said of Gateway. "Here you have a college that anchors us on one corner, then you have a 50-year corporate citizen that's anchoring (another) corner."
Larry Flatt, group vice president for Regulator Technologies, said the facility represents a long-term commitment to drive Emerson's global expansion out of McKinney, where the company recognized skilled workers, access to auto and aero transportation, strong education and health care systems, and proximity to the D-FW Metroplex.
"McKinney has created an overall environment that is conducive both to a community that can grow and thrive, but also one that is supportive of business," he said.
Likely to grow hand-in-hand with the rest of the site, for which the city has high expectations, Emerson shares such a vision for its newest development: to be "the undisputed global leader" in its industry, Page said.
Its most entrenched step yet toward that vision has again broken the ground at Gateway.
"As I tell people every time they come into McKinney," Loughmiller said, "if you haven't been here in the last six months, and you come in the next six months, it's going to look completely different."
Emerson Process Management's Regulator Technologies broke ground on its $25 million global headquarters on the north end of the Gateway site, at the U.S. Highway 75 and Sam Rayburn Tollway interchange.
"This Emerson project is a perfect example of how we are growing the community in a positive way," Mayor Brian Loughmiller said to a crowd of city staff, board members and Emerson employees gathered at the site. "We've been waiting a long time to do something with this site...and this site is primed for premier development activity as we work towards the vision for the city of McKinney."
The three-story, 128,000-square-foot headquarters, set to be complete by late next year, would be the second successful development at the 90-acre site, following the Collin College Higher Education Center that operates to the south, nearer the Tollway.
Last month, the city approved a new plan to finish the hotel-conference center at the front of the site, marked by a partly finished structure for about four years now. City staff and developers are finalizing agreements before construction continues on that project.
The Regulator Technologies facility will include offices, a customer-training center and a fitness center for about 130 employees in engineering, research and development, marketing, sales, finance and procurement.
Emerson Process Management, which currently operates in a 55-year-old former manufacturing plant about six miles north of Gateway, delivers automation and process-control technologies and services to oil and gas, power, refining, chemical and other industries around the world.
Its Regulator Technologies business offers more pressure regulator and relief-valve solutions than any other manufacturer, according to a company release.
The new headquarters will feature test and evaluation labs, including those for new metals/materials-testing and vibration-testing, and a "flow lab" that showcases its products.
The flow lab will consist of large, rechargeable tanks -- their capacity equal to that of two Olympic-size swimming pools -- that will run 14 flow-line pipes ranging from two to 16 inches in diameter.
"Imagine putting air equal to the exhaust of a 737 jet engine," said Randy Page, business unit president for Regulator Technologies. "That's the kind of velocity we're going to have going through those flow lines -- some pretty impressive stuff."
As the Gateway site's northern anchor, the facility is expected to bring in more than $16 million in tax revenue over the next decade, according to a recent economic analysis by Duff & Phelps.
It's the latest installment for a company that has economically and socially partnered with McKinney for 50 years. Emerson last year made close to $200,000 in donations to education, community welfare and arts institutions, such as the McKinney Education Foundation, The Samaritan Inn, McKinney Performing Arts Center, McKinney Food Pantry and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Collin County.
"They have stepped up every time they have been asked to step up in this community and to be a partner in philanthropic projects," Loughmiller said Tuesday.
Before city and company representatives, donning hard hats and shovels, ceremonially broke ground, they emphasized why Emerson chose the Gateway site for its new headquarters.
"It's extremely fitting that we have Emerson as part of this," Keith Clifton, McKinney Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) chair, said of Gateway. "Here you have a college that anchors us on one corner, then you have a 50-year corporate citizen that's anchoring (another) corner."
Larry Flatt, group vice president for Regulator Technologies, said the facility represents a long-term commitment to drive Emerson's global expansion out of McKinney, where the company recognized skilled workers, access to auto and aero transportation, strong education and health care systems, and proximity to the D-FW Metroplex.
"McKinney has created an overall environment that is conducive both to a community that can grow and thrive, but also one that is supportive of business," he said.
Likely to grow hand-in-hand with the rest of the site, for which the city has high expectations, Emerson shares such a vision for its newest development: to be "the undisputed global leader" in its industry, Page said.
Its most entrenched step yet toward that vision has again broken the ground at Gateway.
"As I tell people every time they come into McKinney," Loughmiller said, "if you haven't been here in the last six months, and you come in the next six months, it's going to look completely different."
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