A 600-acre business park is under construction on land that is part of DFW Airport along Airport Freeway at Valley View Lane. The new Passport Business Park is in the City of Irving.
"With the market conditions today it has really accelerated the development on the airport," said DFW Vice President for Commercial Development John Terrell.
The 17,000-acre airport has land area the size of Manhattan Island. Of that space, 12,000 acres are reserved for airport operations. The remaining 5,000 has been opened up for other uses over the past 15 years.
"A lot of the revenues that we generate help to reduce landing fees and costs to the airlines, which are passed on to passengers," Terrell said.
It began on the north side, where the airport's International Commerce Park is nearly full. The airport already had tenants lined up for half of the new Passport Park project on the south side of DFW.
There are also car dealers, hotels and an indoor sports complex on airport property.