Doug Nicholson of Grubb & Ellis Co. tells GlobeSt.com that the entire site had belonged to the rice-manufacturing giant, Uncle Ben's. A few years ago, Midway Cos. had bought the 27.5-acre compound at 5518 Clinton Dr. in east Houston from Uncle Ben's. That move had closely coincided with Uncle Ben's November 1999 decision to roll all of its operations into Mississippi. The existing coffee bean plant had been used as a rice processing facility, which Midway had hawked to Cadeco in early 2000.
The warehouse is a freestanding structure positioned at the intersection of Lockwood and Clinton. Nicholson says the part metal, part concrete block building is a third-generation, rail-served location.
Houston's east side had been a hot industrial warehouse district, boasting about 38 million sf and the second-largest industrial center in town. Recent years, however, have wrought a downturn in the market. Current research puts the rent for distribution warehouse space at about 25 cents per sf.
Midway had purchased the Uncle Ben's properties with plans to revitalize the area via a strategy of marketing low rents and its proximity to the Port of Houston. John Duffie, president of Midway Cos. could not be reached by press time to comment on his company's efforts to reinvigorate the area.
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