Back in the early 1900s, many Texas communities prospered because of the oil boom.
A century later, Lindale is becoming a Boom Town. However, don't be searching the area for oil derricks. This boom is more the gold mine-type.
The gold mine is big businesses coming to the City, such as Trinity Mother Frances Clinic-Lindale, Lowe's and Super Wal-Mart.
Because of those businesses commitment, others are expected to come.
"This is a can do community," said Garry Houston, vice president of Adams Consulting Engineers, Inc. who spoke to Lindale Chamber of Commerce during its meeting this past Thursday. "Lindale is poised and ready to surge to the front of the state in being one of the leading communities.
"You should be proud. Lindale has a lot of good things happening in this community. You need to hang on and get ready, because others are going to look at this and say 'what in the world is going on in Lindale? We need to be there.' You need to be ready, because it's coming."
Lowe's and Wal-Mart are Adams Consulting's largest clients. The Tyler-based firm has worked with Wal-Mart 20 years and Lowe's 10.
The three parties have enjoyed several highlights during their work together. However, one of the biggest occurred when Lowe's and Super Wal-Mart announced plans to come to Lindale.
Although the plans have surfaced during the past year, the foundation for Wal-Mart and Lowe's to move to Lindale might have been set when Target Distribution Center came to the area.
Houston recalls the big moment as if it were yesterday.
"We got a call from an EDC director in Tyler saying there is a prospect floating around the state that needs a 100-acre plat site," Houston said. "We started looking and called this prospect to tell them we may have a site. This prospect told us we had 24 hours to make a submittal. Well, we got busy doing a lot of things, because in 24 hours this prospect was going to announce it was going to another city (Waco) in the state.
"They were pretty much set on it, but they got our submittal and saw the location of the site. They said we want to know more."
The group from Minneapolis came to Tyler. Being a relationship-type business, Adams Consulting did it up right.
During a trip to feed the prospects Texas barbecue, they laid out a plan for the 1.3 million distribution center on a napkin while sitting in the company's motor coach.
From that small napkin, something big surfaced.
"They told us how they wanted it to look and they asked us our incentives," Houston said. "We made calls to the mayor and other people in the community. In about seven days, we had our submittal package ready. When I say we, I mean us, Lindale, Tyler, Smith County, had it all ready to go.
"They (Target) were shocked that we could put it together that quickly and be able for them to consider it. We did that as a team. Today, Lindale is one of the few communities of this size that has a 1.6 million square foot distribution center."
Eventually, word started spreading around town about Lindale needing a Wal-Mart. After all, other communities around East Texas had them, so why not Lindale?
Adams Consulting looked at the possibilities and even made a submission to Wal-Mart.
Nothing came of it until 20 months ago when a broker started searching for communities needing a Wal-Mart and a Lowe's.
Someone with Adams Consulting mentioned Lindale and the rest is history.
Lowe's bought the site and Wal-Mart purchased a portion of it from Lowe's.
"You be assured if Lindale was not a good area for a Wal-Mart and Lowe's combo stores it wouldn't be here," Houston said. "Lindale has something they like. You should be proud of this community. A lot of communities would kill to have it."
Some business owners have wondered how the two stores will affect their businesses.
Houston believes the affect would be positive.
"It's going to bring in more people and build the tax base," he said. "With these two stores and Trinity Mother Frances, you're looking anywhere between 400 to 450 jobs. Jobs bring people to the community.
"Is everybody going to want to shop at Wal-Mart and Lowe's? No. Are they going to want to come downtown to the businesses and do other things? Yes. That's how you build a community. It's all working together."
©Lindale News & Times 2005
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