Dallas-based entrepreneur locates new venture at Cisco Municipal Airport owned by the Cisco Development Corporation creating dozens of new jobs.
Tim Gallagher of Dallas had been searching high and low for a place to locate his modular home manufacturing plant when he came across a real estate listing by the Cisco Development Corporation.
“I was searching for this magical place I needed,” he said. The ad in LoopNet described a 12,000-square-feet empty hangar at the Cisco Municipal Airport. “The configuration of the building was perfect,” Gallagher said.
“It had these 18-foot-tall hangar doors with a 25-foot overall clearance. The units we build, from ground floor to roof peak, are 12 feet high without carrier wheels. I was searching for warehouse or industrial space, but the airport hangar was just perfect for our needs.”
He called the phone number on the ad and left a message for Justin Jaworski, Executive Director of the CDC. “And within a matter of minutes, I got a call back,” Gallagher said. “The Cisco Development Corporation has been very supportive. From the get-go they made a very positive impression on me.”
As seen here, the modular nature of the buildings allows them to stand independently or be joined with others to increase their size.
When he came to Cisco to look, “I was sold the moment I walked into that hangar. There was just this big, gorgeous hangar that was underutilized. And it wasn’t just the property—it was Justin and his treasure chest of Cisco facts and history.”
Gallagher’s business is BHxCO. “BHX sounds like BOX,” he said. “Basically, we build boxes— modular structures that can become homes, apartments, offices or storage.”
He explained that his company’s buildings are not like the garden-variety tiny homes on wheels. “Ours are plumper and more suitable for a permanent home” and they are “unlike a tiny home in that when our product is set on a permanent foundation, it becomes real estate that appreciates.”
“Our units are 12 feet wide, the maximum width, with variable lengths ranging from 20 feet to 50 feet long. They are transported from the factory to site on a flatbed truck to anywhere in Texas,” he said.
Some models, as seen here, include a front porch style, allowing for outdoor space, providing a more welcome layout.
“BHX modular means flexibility. They start at a tiny home-like size, about 350 square feet, configured with one bedroom, one bath, full kitchen and living space; that’s our typical unit,” he said.
“But the true magic is each unit is designed for expandability—we can add them together to make any-size home—like bricks, we can lay them side by side or stack them to create any shape or volume for adding more rooms, baths, etc., at an affordable price.”
“We are working with one developer on a 9-unit single-family home development called the Allen Street Project. The developer’s requirements are laser-focused on affordability with new home price ranges between $125,000 to under $195,000.
The smallest unit is 500 square feet, 2-bedroom, one bath; and the largest unit is 1000 square feet, 3-bedroom, two bath. The finished units feature full-sized appliances, high ceilings, open spaces, covered porches and privacy.”
The company already has orders for several projects and currently employs a dozen workers. BHX expects to hire another dozen employees between January and June of 2024.
“It’s taken us about a year to reach an operational footing after building multiple prototypes to refine our designs,” Gallagher said. “We started our first production run in September and delivered our first production quality units in October.
We currently have a contract backlog of approximately 60 units scheduled for delivery between December and July 2024. We are expecting to receive another order of 40 to 50 units within the next 60 days.”
Gallagher, a real estate developer in Dallas, was born in France when his father was in the U.S. military overseas. His father retired to New Mexico, and the younger Gallagher grew up just south of Albuquerque with his parents, two older brothers, and a younger sister.
Tim Gallagher found his interest in real estate after he retired and sold his successful business involving toll road transactions. “I tell my wife that real estate is my hobby so she doesn’t think I’m working,” he said. “She thinks I should be retired. So this is my hobby.”
His “hobby” has expanded from buying and operating rental homes and properties to developing multi-family units and apartment complexes. His desire to add more apartment units to one of his properties led him to search for a contract fabricator to build a custom modular design.
When he could not find one who could build quantity at a reasonable price, he decided to go into the manufacturing business himself. “I am a recovering control freak,” he joked.
At the time, manufacturing sites surrounding D-FW were all “so very expensive.” At the same time, he realized that in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, he would be fighting for the same labor pool as a thousand other companies.
“Moving the operation out to a rural market like Cisco made better economic sense,” he said. “In Cisco, I found a win-win. Cisco was looking to attract new employers to help the city grow, and I was looking for a strong community with a reliable workforce to build our products.” “I also have family in Clyde and Baird,” he said. “One of my nephews, Sean Gallagher, is our plant foreman.”
“I was pleasantly surprised to find our future in Cisco, a town that was extremely interested in helping me be successful,” Gallagher said. “Furthermore, I am very impressed by Cisco itself.
I have been through many towns in rural Texas where the main street is boarded up. When I came out to Cisco in 2021, I was impressed with all the business activity on Conrad Hilton Boulevard—the streets were lined with vital businesses. So obviously to me, something is going right in Cisco, Texas.”
By Linda Spetter