Kilgore, TX: Idyllic Setting For Thriving Commerce

They built it, and the companies came—Kilgore’s Synergy Park was developed through years of careful cultivation, and it’s poised for still more growth as new companies discover the opportunity to set up shop in this thriving corner of East Texas.

It’s hard to beat a spot like Synergy Park, says Lisa Denton, Executive Director of Kilgore Economic Development Corporation (KEDC), a firsthand witness to the growth of the operation’s flagship property.

 

All it takes is a site visit to effectively seal the deal for many prospects.

“They want to be in a park of this level,” Denton said. “There’s not another spot like Synergy Park, for sure in this region, and there’s not many in Texas that can match what we have.

When we pitch to CEOs and site consultants, we’re always emphasizing our product, our people, and our property.”

At 672 acres, the Class A, campus-style business park is located just two miles from Interstate 20 and nationwide access for efficient distribution. With the central location and proximity to major markets, companies based in Synergy Park can reach more than 20 million people within 250 miles. Likewise, the park is situated nine miles from East Texas Regional Airport and regional jet service through American Airlines to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

The park’s most visible amenities include a 10-acre lake surrounded by lush trees and nature trails. That curb appeal draws the best and brightest of the surrounding workforce—according to Denton, Kilgore’s proximity to neighboring MSAs makes attracting talent easy with more than 317,000 workers in the labor shed. Workers putting down their first roots in the area find the best of both worlds with easy commutes between micropolitan cities and rural living.

For Freedom Communication Technologies, “The CEO of that company wanted that base in Synergy Park specifically for the amenities it offered because it would attract the engineers he wanted,” Denton said. Employees have a vibrant natural environment to escape to for a breather, for lunch, for a walk to reenergize themselves while, around them, commerce flourishes. “That is so attractive to a higher-skilled workforce that it’s attractive to the companies that need those employees.”

The park’s mindful restrictions feed back into its quality, maintaining the property and protecting tenants’ investment long-term.

“Each one of the companies, when they locate on a lot within the park, becomes a member of the Synergy Park property owners’ association so they have ownership in it and the ability to steer it and maintain it on the level they want and need it to be,” explains Denton.

KEDC’s virtual building program has crafted two pre-designed facilities to help prospects easily visualize how they’ll get products to customers faster. Either option enables a company to build according to its own efficiencies while reducing construction time.

“We’ve done that twice and well,” Denton said. Streamlining even more through pre-permitting with the City of Kilgore, “It saves companies at least 3-4 months in their process to get under construction and completed so they can start operating in Synergy Park.”