Dallas Market Center to Manage Colombia Trade Mart
Dallas-based Market Center Management Co. (MCMC) has reached an agreement with two Latin American companies to help develop and operate the proposed Latin America Trade Mart, a 2.5 million-square-foot wholesale trade center to be developed in Bogota, Colombia.
MCMC, which owns the Dallas Market Center and previously had managed the gift showrooms at the California Market Center, will manage the new facility, which is expected to open in 2011. The mart will house more than 500 permanent showrooms and 900 temporary booths dealing in apparel and accessories, home furnishings, and textiles. Also, a 65,000-square-foot convention center and a 500-room hotel, tentatively planned to be operated by Hyatt, are part of the project.
The project’s developer is Pedro Gomez y Cia S.A., one of the largest commercial developers in South America, and Organizacioacute;n Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo (OLSCA), a private holding company. MCMC officials said the South American facility would become the first wholesale marketplace in the region to serve both international and domestic markets.
“With this kind of investment, our country is building step-by-step a future for the new generations,” said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at a Jan. 29 event attended by about 600 business and government leaders.
The LatinAmerican Trade Mart will expand MCMC’s portfolio across the globe. The company now owns or manages the Dallas Market Center, the Shanghai Mart and the International Trade Mart in Brussels. —Robert McAllister
