John Bogna
With giant tech firms setting up shop and the creation of a new “smart district,” Dallas is trying to give California’s famous tech cradle a run for its money.
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Tech manufacturer Taiyo America just opened an office in Dallas, with plans to use it as a base to expand into areas like electric vehicles and AI. The company manufactures specialty inks and solder masks used in computer circuit boards, according to dallasinnovates.com.
“We are targeting future growth in many emerging high technological business segments and view Dallas as the new Silicon Valley for such technological advances,” said Taiyo’s Director Tadahiko Hanada in a press release. Taiyo’s new office opened October 1.
Dallas developer Mike Hoque and real estate company KDC’s new 8-million square foot tech district is hoping to draw even more tech firms to the city, including Amazon. Hoque reportedly spent years buying up the 20-acre area of real estate to develop a city center replete with shopping, dining and living areas.
“If Amazon decided to be a part of our smart district—and they could be—they could drive a lot of change. But we are not banking on Amazon at all. We started designing this way before anyone began talking about Amazon coming to this city,” Hoque told D Magazine.
The district will be exactly the size in square footage Amazon listed in its RFP, and will also include a grocery store, which could be home to a Whole Foods location, a chain now owned by Amazon.
Hoque’s company Hoque Global hopes to break ground on the project on the first phase of this project by the end of 2018, and says they’ll “take our time [to find] someone who is thinking about the future.”
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