Mark Lehman and Chris Kugle, both of Grubb & Ellis Co.'s Houston office, represented CSI/Crown in the lease negotiations for its spot at 4660 N. Sam Houston Parkway, situated near the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Mike Annino of Insite Realty in Houston acted on behalf of the building owner, EastGroup Properties LP, headquartered in Jackson, MS.

CSI/Crown provides logistics, transportation, warehousing, cutting services and installation supplies to the floor-covering industry. It is a subsidiary of Chattanooga, TN-based, US Xpress Enterprises Inc.

Lehman tells GlobeSt.com that this is CSI's only Houston location. The tenant will be relocating from a ProLogis Trust facility along Post Oak Boulevard near Loop 610 North. It's a move that puts CSI closer to its customers, many of whom are in the airport area. Lehman says CSI also sought a site that would put it closer to the airport and freight services. More and more companies are choosing the airport submarket for those very same reasons, says Kugle. CSI's new spot will be in a 129,000-sf, tilt-wall, dock-high building.

Annino says activity in the Houston International Business Center has been steady. The park currently has 11 facilities boasting an overall 98.5% occupancy rate.

EastGroup is joint venturing with Insite on three more buildings that are under construction: 50,416 sf, 58,920 sf and 70,000 sf. In December 2000, EastGroup bought 63 acres and a lone 107,000-sf building. In March, the developer broker ground on a 198,000-sf industrial building that will deliver in October or November. In all, EastGroup owns more than one million sf in the Houston International Business Center and is bringing another 900,000 sf out of the ground to meet the pressing demand.