The site is located outside the flood plain with access to quality utilities and aggressive tax abatement eligibility.
HOUSTON—Stream Realty Partners has closed on 300 acres in west Houston to build Empire West Business Park, a class-A industrial development. Empire West has 5,000 feet of rare Interstate 10 and Highway 90 frontage with dedicated exits to Woods Road. The site is located outside the flood plain, has access to quality utilities, and its location in Brookshire and Waller County creates eligibility for aggressive tax abatements.
"Based on years of research in this area, coupled with the abundant user demand in west Houston, we feel now is the time to strike and put this land into production," says Justin Robinson, partner at Stream.
Stream's immediate strategy is three-fold. First, Stream will build a speculative phase totaling 1 million square feet under three roofs. Second, it will chase build-to-suit deals and lastly, sell land to corporate end users.
"Empire West's location is situated perfectly to service the consumptive demand created by greater Houston's 7 million residents, which is the main driver for the local distribution market," continues Matteson Hamilton, partner at Stream. "Additionally, this site provides a great head start for users looking to expand their range and distribute regionally to Austin, San Antonio and south Texas."
Stream leases and manages more than 30 million square feet of industrial product in Houston and has developed 6 million square feet of industrial product locally during the last 10 years. Jeremy Lumbreras with Stream will support the leasing efforts of Empire West.
"There is a good range of tenants in that market," Hamilton tells GlobeSt.com. "Most likely and what we are predicting, e-commerce and consumer goods distributors that are first and foremost wanting to serve Houston find the location very strategic to serve central and south Texas, among other states."
Simpkins Group, a Houston-based commercial real estate development and investment firm, originally initiated the overall development plan, and given its historical knowledge of the site, will be Stream's partner on the land development and infrastructure improvements.
Demand for industrial property continues to outstrip developers' capacity to deliver new space, according to Transwestern's latest national report on the sector. Occupiers soaked up a net 41.2 million square feet in the third quarter of 2019, a 23% decrease from 53.2 million square feet absorbed in the previous quarter and less than half the pace in third quarter 2018.
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Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.
