GAINESVILLE, Texas — The stretch of Interstate 35 running through Cooke County has been a quiet four-lane stretch for most of the last half century — a pass-through between Dallas-Fort Worth and the Oklahoma border, dotted with cattle ranches, pecan groves, and the occasional gas station.
That era is ending.
In the span of roughly 60 days this winter, two separate land deals placed more than 1,400 acres of Cooke County property into the hands of developers with plans measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. A third project — a BNSF Railway-certified industrial rail park built on land where World War II soldiers once trained — is already under construction. And TxDOT is widening the highway itself from four lanes to six, a $482 million project that will reshape the corridor's access and visibility through the end of the decade.
Taken together, the developments represent the most significant wave of commercial investment Cooke County has seen in modern memory. What follows is a closer look at each one, how they connect, and what they mean for the communities along the way.
Camp Howze: From army barracks to BNSF rail park
The story of the I-35 corridor's transformation arguably begins on a patch of land in northwest Gainesville that most locals know by its wartime name.
Camp Howze was officially announced on March 20, 1942, and opened that August. At its peak the installation covered nearly 59,000 acres of Cooke County farmland and trained tens of thousands of soldiers for combat in Europe and the Pacific. It was named after General Robert Lee Howze of Overton, Texas. After the war, the land was returned to private owners, and for decades it sat largely unchanged — pasture and brush along the BNSF mainline that runs north-south through Gainesville.
That changed in November 2020, when BNSF Railway designated a 126-acre parcel within the former Camp Howze footprint as a Premier Certified Site — a designation that means the land has passed BNSF's ten-point evaluation covering infrastructure, environmental, and geotechnical standards. The certification is designed to cut six to nine months off the typical development timeline for companies looking to build rail-served facilities.
The following year, the project took a major step forward. In July 2021, the Gainesville City Council unanimously approved a deal for Strategic Rail Industrial, LLC — a Philadelphia-based developer specializing in rail logistics infrastructure — to purchase the Gateway Industrial Park site for $5 million.
Strategic Rail committed to an initial investment of $15 to $18 million. The project has since expanded beyond the original 126-acre Gateway footprint into the broader Camp Howze Industrial Rail Park — now encompassing roughly 480 acres with plans for a 30-acre rail-to-truck transload yard, a 200,000-square-foot freight forwarding facility, 55 railcar loading spots, and interior rail lines connecting to the BNSF mainline that runs through downtown Gainesville. Some buildings are planned to exceed 700,000 square feet.
This expansion has been driven by B-29 Investments, the family office of John Schmitz, who took over the project after Strategic Rail's initial development work. B-29 is also behind much of Gainesville's recent real estate development — most recently, driving the completion of McDonald's, 7-Eleven, and Aldi at Highway 82 and Grand. B-29's real estate arm holds Camp Howze in its portfolio and is continuing the rail-infrastructure buildout outlined in the original 2021 development agreement — including the rail switch needed to bring BNSF service into the park — while also handling leasing and marketing for the property.
To finance the public infrastructure, a 25-year Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone was approved with support from the City of Gainesville, Cooke County, the Cooke County Hospital District, and North Central Texas College. The TIRZ is projected to generate approximately $48 million over its lifetime, with roughly $28 million earmarked for public infrastructure within Camp Howze. At full buildout over the next two decades, the park's appraised value is projected to exceed $620 million — and once the site is fully leased and operational, the broader economic value of the facility could reach into the billions over a 10- to 20-year horizon.
Rail service from BNSF was expected to begin in the third quarter of 2025, with twice-weekly service expandable to three times per week or more as demand grows. The park also carries New Market Tax Credit eligibility and sits within a designated Opportunity Zone.
The BNSF proposal that never was: Valley View, 2019
Camp Howze is not BNSF's first look at Cooke County.
In the fall of 2019, word began to spread that the railroad was exploring a far larger project several miles to the south. A 1,000-acre logistics park was under preliminary discussion, sited along the BNSF line between the towns of Sanger (in Denton County) and Valley View, stretching from Lone Oak Road to County Road 2411 on the east side of I-35.
The proposed facility would have been split roughly 60 percent in Cooke County and 40 percent in Denton County, with an estimated price tag of $500 million — including roughly $40 million for land acquisition. BNSF's plan called for a fully permitted logistics center with rail-served sites for individual railcar shippers and unit-train facilities capable of handling full trainloads.
On October 23, 2019, the Gainesville Register reported that the project was "very preliminary." Then-Cooke County Judge Jason Brinkley told the paper that BNSF was "approaching landowners now." An emailed request for comment from BNSF went unanswered.
A public meeting was organized for November 12 at the Bob Andrew Agricultural Science Center on the Valley View ISD campus. It was hosted by Precinct 2 Commissioner Jason Snuggs and County Judge Brinkley, and organized by Jason Bewley, a Valley View ISD board member. Roughly 50 people attended.
The mood was not welcoming. The Lemons Publications weekly — which serves the Sanger area — published the most detailed account of the meeting, reporting that BNSF was in preliminary negotiations with landowners and that talks were "moving slow." No formal offers had been made. BNSF representatives told attendees the railroad was simply asking property owners what they would sell their land for. The site plan was described as fluid — it could shift "farther west of the lake and a little more south along the railroad" depending on which landowners were willing to negotiate.
Some residents had lived on their land for their entire lives. Others had recently built homes inside or adjacent to the proposed project footprint. The resistance was immediate and personal.
The project never formally advanced as proposed. The combination of community opposition, difficult land negotiations, and the arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020 appears to have stalled the public effort. BNSF never announced a cancellation — and Cooke County appraisal records show the railroad as the landowner of record on parcels along the proposed 2019 corridor, suggesting that quiet acquisition activity has continued in the years since.
But the concept did not die. It moved.
Gunter: What Valley View's project could have become
In June 2023, BNSF announced plans to build a multi-customer logistics center near Gunter, a small town in Grayson County along State Highway 289, roughly 30 minutes from Frisco and an hour north of Dallas. The parallels to the Valley View proposal were unmistakable: similar acreage, similar price point, similar function.
The Gunter project initially met resistance of its own. In July 2023, BNSF withdrew applications to rezone and annex property in Gunter after heated community pushback. The railroad said it would "take time to further consider how we will orient and construct this facility."
Two years of negotiation followed. By July 2025, Gunter and BNSF had reached a revised agreement that included a buffer zone of 500 to 800 feet from existing homes, enforceable sound limits, and lighting restrictions.
On March 12, 2026 — just two months ago — BNSF broke ground on what it now calls Logistics Center North Dallas. The numbers are strikingly similar to what was once proposed for Valley View: 944 acres, approximately $500 million in investment, and a projected economic impact of 6,000 jobs and more than $1 billion at full buildout. Phase 1 construction is expected to take roughly 19 months.
Gunter Mayor Karen Souther, Grayson County Judge Bruce Dawsey, and community leaders attended the ceremony. BNSF CEO Katie Farmer, who announced a $3.6 billion capital investment plan for 2026, called the Gunter facility part of a broader effort to "strengthen and modernize our network."
The Gunter site is approximately 40 miles east of where the Valley View project would have been. The two sites share a geographic logic — both sit near the northern edge of the DFW metroplex's growth arc, both have direct BNSF mainline access, and both are positioned to serve the surging demand for last-mile and regional logistics infrastructure driven by e-commerce and population growth.
For Cooke County, the Gunter project represents a road not taken. The Valley View proposal, had it progressed, would have brought a comparable facility — and comparable job creation — directly into the county. Instead, that investment landed one county to the east.
But the I-35 corridor has not been sitting idle.
815 acres: Rex Glendenning and the Pace Ranch
On January 31, 2026, North Texas developer Rex Glendenning and his wife Sherese, through their company Old Chisholm Trail Partners, closed on the 815-acre Pace Ranch along I-35 near Gainesville. The Pace family had owned the land for more than 75 years.
Glendenning is the founder of Frisco-based REX Real Estate. The Dallas Morning News and other outlets have described him as the dominant land assembler in North Texas's fast-growing corridors. His track record includes assembling large tracts ahead of residential and commercial booms in Collin and Denton counties.
Early concepts for the Pace Ranch call for housing on the northern 400 acres — potentially 800 to 1,000 single-family homes and 2,000 to 3,000 apartments — while portions of the southern acreage would be carved out for logistics or industrial uses. Glendenning has stated publicly that talks are underway with grocery operators for the southern portion.
"The I-35 corridor is experiencing significant growth in the logistics sector," Glendenning said at the time of the purchase. "We feel the Gainesville area is next in line."
The Real Deal, a national real estate publication, noted that Glendenning's land sits just north of where the 2019 BNSF logistics park had been proposed — a detail that underscores how consistently the Valley View-to-Gainesville stretch of I-35 has attracted large-scale development interest.
Zoning applications and traffic impact studies for the Pace Ranch are expected in the coming months. Purchase terms were not disclosed.
600 acres: H-E-B's supply chain campus in Valley View
Days after the Pace Ranch deal closed, news broke that H-E-B — the largest private employer in Texas, with more than 175,000 employees, 455 stores, and over $50 billion in annual sales — had purchased more than 600 acres in Valley View along I-35 and East Lone Oak Road.
The same Lone Oak Road referenced in the 2019 BNSF proposal.
H-E-B announced plans for a "master-planned supply chain campus" to be built in multiple phases, designed to support the grocery chain's rapid expansion across North and West Texas. Carson Landsgard, H-E-B's chief supply chain officer, called the purchase "the first step in developing a master-planned campus that will strengthen our ability to serve more Texans." He added that the campus "will generate more local job opportunities in the years ahead."
Beyond those statements, H-E-B has disclosed very little. There is no construction timeline, no phase schedule, no cost estimate, no job count, and no named engineering or architectural firms. No tax incentive agreements have been publicly reported. No local officials — not the Valley View mayor, not the Cooke County commissioners — have been quoted in any available coverage.
The Valley View campus is part of a broader H-E-B supply chain buildout. The company also recently purchased nearly 500 acres in Hempstead (Waller County) for a distribution campus and 122 additional acres adjacent to its existing Temple distribution hub. Together, the three acquisitions represent roughly 1,222 acres of new supply chain capacity.
For Valley View — a town of fewer than 1,000 people — a 600-acre supply chain campus would be a transformative development.
The highway itself: TxDOT's $482 million widening
Underlying all of this is the physical expansion of the road.
I-35 through Cooke County currently carries approximately 55,000 vehicles per day. TxDOT projects that figure will reach 88,000 by 2040 — a 60 percent increase. Truck traffic accounts for 20 to 25 percent of current volume.
The expansion is being delivered in three phases. Phase 2, covering the stretch from Highway 82 to the Oklahoma border, is underway at an estimated cost of $482 million. Phase 3, extending from FM 3002 in Cooke County to the border, is projected to begin in May 2026 and finish in September 2031.
The project will widen I-35 from four to six lanes with continuous frontage roads and include two new bridges over the Red River. For properties along the corridor, the expansion brings improved access, greater visibility, and the kind of highway infrastructure that retailers, restaurants, and logistics operators require before committing to a market.
What it adds up to
The scale of what is converging along the I-35 corridor in Cooke County is difficult to overstate.
Camp Howze Industrial Rail Park: 480 acres, projecting $620 million in early assessed values — but with total economic value potentially into the billions as it matures. H-E-B supply chain campus: 600 acres, scope unknown but backed by a company with $50 billion in annual revenue. Pace Ranch: 815 acres, targeting thousands of residential units and industrial development. TxDOT I-35 widening: $482 million in highway construction. Gunter Logistics Center, one county east: $500 million and 6,000 projected jobs.
Cooke County's population has grown more than 11 percent since 2010 and is projected to grow 82 percent by 2040. The I-35 corridor is where much of that growth will land.
The question is no longer whether the development is coming. It is whether the county's infrastructure, workforce, and municipal governments are ready for it.
This article is the first in an occasional series examining major development along the I-35 corridor in Cooke County. The Cooke County Record will continue to track the progress of Camp Howze Industrial Rail Park, the H-E-B supply chain campus, the Pace Ranch development, and the TxDOT highway expansion as details emerge.
Have a tip about corridor development? Contact news@cookecountyrecord.com.