John Ferruzzo with NAI Houston's office, tells GlobeSt.com that the volunteer fire organization began looking for a site after a demographics study pinpointed a need in the Perry Road area in the suburb, located north of Houston. "They found out that Perry Road was ground zero for them," he says. "They felt that was a spot they needed to be." He adds the firemen initially considered building a facility, but opted for an existing structure after seeing the 12073 Perry Rd. property.

Although several others bid on the building, Ferruzzo says fire department officials won over the seller of record, 12073 Perry Rd. LP, with its quick-closing terms. "We shut down the negotiations pretty quickly when we realized the fire department was going to close quickly," he says. "The seller had a good feeling that a government agency wd have the ability to close."

Still, Ferruzzo says, the department will need to make some major renovations to the property, which had been used for years as a dry cleaning distribution center. Although it has enough land for parking of fire equipment, the building has no bays for the fire trucks.