Stanley Black and Decker officials said a pool of talented workers helped bring a new manufacturing facility to the AllianceTexas development in northeast Fort Worth.

The world’s largest tools and storage company also considered building the facility in Dayton, Ohio, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Stanley Black & Decker decided on Fort Worth after looking at the available workforce in each area.

“One of the most important factors was labor availability in the skill sets that we need to produce mechanics tools. It's not a skill that you find everywhere in the country,” said Greg Smulski, vice president of real estate for Stanley Black & Decker.

“Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the few areas that continues to have a growing population, so we felt the availability of labor there would be easier to come by than some of the other areas that we visited,” he added. “The business-friendly environment was certainly a big factor as well.”

The company decided to build the facility at AllianceTexas due to the development’s available land and location near major roadways, such as I-35W, US 377, and SH 114 and SH 170.

“We were intrigued with the AllianceTexas development,” Smulski said. “It's in a great location with great highway access. It was an available parcel that we thought we could get developed pretty quickly.”

Incentives also played a part in bringing the facility to North Texas, Smulski added. Fort Worth City Council approved a 40% tax break on the company’s real and business personal property taxes for five years.

The breaks will save the company around $1.07 million over five years if Stanley Black & Decker invests $90 million in the facility by January 2022 and if 15% of the facility’s construction is done by minority- or women-owned businesses.

The city’s incentive agreement also requires the company to create 500 jobs by December 2021. Those jobs must pay at least $43,992, according to the agreement.

“We are very pleased to have worked with Stanley Black & Decker on this expansion project,” said Robert Sturns, economic development director with the city of Fort Worth. “This expansion increases their North American footprint, and they join the ranks of other high-profile manufacturers that have a strong presence in Fort Worth.”

Stanley Black & Decker plans to break ground this summer on the 425,000-square-foot facility, which will be located on North Beach Street across from a Walmart.com distribution hub. It is expected to be complete in late 2020.

The company has purchased additional land around the facility to allow for future growth.

The facility will cost around $90 million to build. Around $45 million will be spent on land and construction costs, and the remaining $45 million will be spent on equipment, according to Abigail Dreher, director of public affairs for Stanley Black & Decker.

The new plant will manufacture tools for the Craftsman brand, which Stanley Black & Decker bought in 2017. Some of the technologies used at the facility will allow the company to cut down on water and energy usage.

“This new plant will also be the latest in our network of manufacturing facilities—one that uses state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies and demonstrates our commitment to becoming one of the world's leaders in advanced manufacturing,” said Jim Loree, president and CEO of Stanley Black & Decker, in a press release.

Of the 500 new jobs created at the facility, about 100 of those workers will earn salaries of $75,000. The remainder of the workers will earn an average paycheck of $45,000, Dreher said.

Late next year or in early 2021, Stanley Black & Decker also plans to move about 300 positions from a separate facility in Farmers Branch to the new Fort Worth plant, Smulski said.

“Our existing workforce at our Farmers Branch facility is a very skilled workforce,” he added. “The ability to retain those people [at the Fort Worth facility] was important.”

In addition to the Fort Worth facility, Stanley Black & Decker announced in February plans to open a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center in Northlake. That hub will create 300 new jobs.