New company joining TexAmericas Center

New company joining TexAmericas Center

HOOKS, Texas—With the help of more then $2.9 million in federal and state grant funds, one of the TexAmericas Center’s largest tenants will become fully operational next month.

State and local elected officials, along with business representatives, held a press conference under a sunny, warm, mid-fall morning sky Wednesday to announce that the Dallas-based Expal USA explosives repurposing company will open its TexAmericas Center-based plant in December.

“The TexAmericas Center Board of Directors is very excited to welcome Expal USA,” said Board Chairman Denis Washington. “The board believes that the Expal project, which is the largest to date for the center, will be a springboard for growth here and throughout this region. The Expal USA project is a major win for the TexAmericas Center, as well as for the whole Texarkana region.”

Of the slightly more then $2.9 million in state and federal funds, Bowie County Judge James Carlow announced that part of it included the county applying for and receiving $750,000 in Texas Capital Fund grant money, through the Texas Department of Agriculture. This helped support Expal’s locating at TexAmericas.

“The entire community has worked on and supported this project for more then two years now,” Carlow said. “I would also like to thank the Ark-Tex Council of Governments for their work in putting together the application and following up on all the paperwork requirements that resulted in the award of this grant.”

The largest amount of the $2.9 million, came when the U.S. Economic Development Administration recently awarded ATCOG with two grants totalling $1.65 million, most of which is earmarked for improving TexAmericas’ electrical and natural gas utilities.

Besides the country’s EDA, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment Grants recently awarded more than $454,000 in funds to Workforce Solutions of Northeast Texas. This money received matching funds amounting to more than $50,500 from local cities, chambers of commerce and industrial development corporations. These included both cities of Texarkana, as well as the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, the Atlanta, Texas, Chamber of Commerce, Cass County, and the economic development corporations of Nash, DeKalb and Clarksville, Texas.

TexAmericas Center Executive Director Scott Norton said he appreciates the partnerships that TexAmericas has developed with county, state and federal offices, as well as with regional business organizations.

“TexAmericas Center is a proud partner with Bowie County, the Texas Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Economic Development Administration and Workforce Solutions of Northeast Texas to further the economic development of the Texarkana area,” he said. “These grant dollars will help to get our property shovel-ready and align our capabilities with our targeted industries’ needs.”

Last year, Expal received a $156 million U.S. Army contract—mostly because the company not only manufactures complete weapons systems for land, sea and air defenses, but it also produces gun propellants, 60mm mortar shells and 155mm artillery shells. It also manufactures artillery, mortar and aviation fuses.

Expal USA Chief Executive Officer Steve Dart said the company, which also demilitarizes military explosives, is now the second largest manufacturer of explosives in the world. This includes former military explosives converted into civilian use, such as for civil work like building demolition and natural resources prospecting.

He added that TexAmericas’s location on the former Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant site has an additional benefit.

“TexAmericas is a great place of expansion of operations and ammunition bunker storage,” he said.