Pegasus News Business 2008: Ups and downs in Dallas-Fort Worth

by Teresa Gubbins

As you may have heard, the economy is in bad shape. And the Dallas-Fort Worth area has not escaped unscathed.

Down

Car sales fell; Greyhound closed a call center; Harold's went out of business; and Circuit City shut down stores.

TI laid off a bunch of people. So did Frito Lay and American Airlines. In 2009, more than 4,000 homes are expected to go into foreclosure in January, and costs on the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington have doubled.

Up

But our neck of the woods has plenty to be cheerful about: Income in Collin County grew by 12.4%, beating the national average of 5.5%. A study by Nielsen found that Dallas is the second-fastest growing market in the U.S., and the Department of Labor said we had the highest rate of new jobs in the country.

The Dallas area not only leads the nation in new apartment construction, it saw a surge in rentals.

Dallas-based companies who had good years include Pizza Patron and Match.com, who had their best month ever in November.

Branching out

We're in such good shape that companies are opting to open offices or branches here, including Raising Cane and Halliburton. Tenet relocated its HQ to downtown Dallas as did Luminant.

A number of national specialty grocery stores expanded into the Dallas area including Aldi, Sprouts, Colorado-based Natural Grocers, and Sunflowers Farmers Market, and Market Street.

Up in smoke

Dallas' no-smoking ordinance stirred controversy: The owner of Illusions was preparing to file a suit. But alcohol sales have remained steady and some industry folk say the anti-smoking initiative won't be so bad.

Conventional thinking

The other local hot button was the convention center hotel in downtown Dallas, a venture that raised lots of questions. There's less resistance to the idea of creating a sustainable block downtown.

Last but not least, legendary local watering hole Lee Harvey's sold the rights to its name and for a brief blissful period was known as The PegasusNews.com Conviviality Centr™ -- before reverting to its original identity as Lee Harvey's. Nothing lasts forever.