The Port of Houston is seeing strong industrial demand, but from smaller tenants. (That's tenants who want less space, not Smurf-size tenants.) That's why Clay Development & Construction is kicking off construction of Energy Commerce Business Park, a five-building complex that can accommodate smaller and larger users alike.

NAI’s John Simons and Holden Rushing are handling leasing and tell us Phase 1 of the 45-acre park is an 88k SF rear-load flex warehouse and a 200k SF cross-dock warehouse. Clay director of development Charlie Christ tells us construction will begin in the next few weeks and will deliver in Q1 ’15. He says there's a huge need for warehouse space from 20k to 50k SF. Holden says Energy Commerce is one of only a few locations in Southeast Houston with a significant amount of Beltway frontage—nearly half a mile. He also feels the park has unmatched flexibility. Phase 1 offers both rear-load and cross-dock, and Phase 2 could include three buildings aggregating 344k SF, or those 24 acres could go BTS.

Energy Commerce is at Beltway 8 just south of Highway 225. Holden says there aren't many spec industrial projects underway on the Southeast side, so he and John started getting calls from potential users as soon as they sent out the flyer. (He hopes to be pre-leased before delivery.) And they'll be ahead of what competition there is: Transwestern is starting its Park 225 development soon, but Clay will beat it to the groundbreaking punch.

Charlie tells us Clay's other projects in the area have been very successful, like its 150-acre Deerwood Glen business park, which is nearly built out. The last pieces of the puzzle are one large tract, and office development. Clay built Phase 1 of its office product in 2009, and it's 100% leased. Phase 2, a 79k SF, two-story building, will deliver by the end of this year. Charlie tells us his team is working on four tenants there now.