Industrial Construction Undeterred

There's roughly 5M SF under construction in Houston, largely in the far Northwest and far North submarkets. TNRG's about to add to that—it's gearing up Intercontinental Crossing Business Park, senior broker Robert McGee (a panelist at our event) tells us. The 132-acre deed-restricted park is just west of the airport on Aldine Westfield and Farrell roads, and the firm is building out infrastructure and utilities now. The first phase will be 30 acres, and Robert and Thomas Leger are working a 14-acre deal now (an industrial user from Mexico), that would sell out the phase. He's already got three sites under contract to two developers and one to a user, and TNRG will build three spec buildings totaling 58k SF.

The second phase of infrastructure and roads at Intercontinental Crossing (laid out above) is already being designed, and TNRG plans to commence construction on it as soon as Phase 1 is complete. The dip in oil prices has killed a few deals, Robert tells us, but hasn't had a huge impact on the industrial market yet. Activity is still high, especially in smaller deals (under 20k SF). He's also seeing a lot of investment sales activity for freestanding buildings, most of which are going under contract before construction is complete. Next up on Robert's to-do list: selling and leasing 200k SF of freestanding buildings under construction or in planning across North Houston.

Avera had a busy 2014, CEO Trey Odom (another panelist) tells us. Its most notable groundbreaking was 225 RailPort, a 600k SF build-to-suit that'll deliver this quarter. Frontier Logistics will occupy that property (rendered below) at the Port. Avera's also been particularly busy at Century Plaza Distribution Center in North Houston, delivering two buildings totaling 300k SF in the past year and leasing one to PrimeSource Building Products. The fourth site there is under development, with the ability to add 125k SF to the property. Avera also completed the first phase of Imperial Distribution Center, a 328k SF building at I-45 and Airtex. That park will eventually total 700k SF, Trey tells us.

Oil prices aren't slowing it one bit, either—Trey says Avera has 2M SF in its 2015/2016 development pipeline. (That includes projects being built in Houston, Midland, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Omaha.) Here in Houston (Avera's HQ and main focus), it'll be breaking ground soon on Park 8, a 243k SF property at I-45 N and Beltway 8. Hear more about the industrial market at our event Jan. 29, starting at 7am at the JW Marriott. Register here.