Industrial Properties

Industrial Properties, New Construction, Office Space, Recycling

4 Comments

The finishing touches are being put on this somewhat totemic new building at the ReUse Warehouse site in Independence Heights. This one’s built on the concrete slab and with the steel beams of the old Public Works machine shop here at 9003 Main St., downcycling that building’s roof for use as its ceiling. It’ll serve as office space for Solid Waste Management staff; it’ll also house a workshop to process donated materials (usually the leftovers from new builds and the salvaged stuff from demos)Â and feature a recycled-art gallery. Zen T. C. Zheng reports that the building should be ready to go by June.

Reuse Warehouse [City of Houston]
New building to spur community recycling [City Savvy]
Previously on Swamplot: Recycling Houston Building Parts

Photo: Allyn West

77018, Independence Heights, Industrial Buildings, New Construction, Office Space, Recycling

Industrial Properties

05/01/13 11:30am

The Pasadena Place Where Beer Will Come From

Land Development, New Construction, Office Space, Pasadena

1 Comment

Construction has started in Pasadena on one of the largest loading and unloading zones of beer in Texas. Silver Eagle Distributors, whose lookalike company headquarters you can see from I-10 north of Memorial Park, says that the $25 million, 400,000-sq.-ft. distribution center will sit on 50 acres near the Sam Houston Tollway and those Independence Trail scenes painted on the Pasadena Freeway refineries.

Anheuser-Busch distributor breaks ground on Pasadena facility [Houston Business Journal]
Beer wholesaler breaks ground in Pasadena [Prime Property]

Image: Silver Eagle Distributors via Swamplot inbox

77503, Industrial Buildings, Land Development, New Construction, Pasadena

Buying and Selling

02/13/13 9:30am

Admiral Linen Leaving Montrose Location for Northwest Houston?

Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Properties, Office Buildings, Spring Branch

10 Comments

Will the recent purchase, a reader wants to know, of aÂ 105,000-sq.-ft. building out near Spring Branch by Admiral Linen & Uniform Services mean anything for the company’s much-smaller headquarters at 2030 Kipling St.? Well, Admiral Linen isn’t available for comment.

The company closed just after Christmas on the building at 8020 Blankenship Dr., near Hempstead and Bingle. Since 1998, according to city records, it’s owned the three-building, 24,000-sq.-ft. headquarters a block ~~west~~ east of South Shepherd and directly behind the Randalls on Westheimer.

77055, 77098, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Buildings, Montrose, Spring-Branch

Demolitions

02/11/13 2:15pm

Johnson Supply Building Beside Studemont Kroger Coming Down

Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Sixth Ward

11 Comments

More room for groceries? The building immediately north of the Studemont Kroger that used to house HVAC company Johnson Supply is being torn down. The top photo shows the building from Studemont; the bottom photo shows the progress — orÂ regress? — of the demo as of noon today.

77007, Demolitions, Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Sixth Ward

Adaptive Reuse

01/22/13 5:00pm

Historic Houston Using East End Warehouse To Store Salvaged Historic Houston

Construction Materials, East End, Historic Preservation, Home Decor, Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Recycling, Shopping, Warehouse Space

11 Comments

Whoever owns this warehouse in the East End — he wants to remain anonymous — has donated it for the time being toÂ Historic Houston to house its collection of materials rescued from historic Houston buildings before demolitions turned everything into splinters and twisted metal.

The warehouse is located between Eastwood and Milby at 4300 Harrisburg, right next to the monolithic Maximus Coffee Group plant.Â This Sunday theÂ mural-covered doors will be rolled up for a few hours while the nonprofit rolls out an inventory including windows, light fixtures, flooring, and siding. Founder and executive director Lynn Edmundson tells Swamplot that the group has been looking for a permanent home since early December; it had leased a warehouse and yard at 1307 W. Clay until closing in June 2011.

Salvage Warehouse Reopens (PDF) [Historic Houston]
Previously on Swamplot: Fundraising to Reopen Historic Houston’s Salvage Warehouse, Historic Houston Salvage Warehouse Going Out of Business, Selling Everything at Auction, Can Historic Houstonâ€™s Salvage Warehouse Be Salvaged?

Photo: Historic Houston

77003, Adaptive Reuse, East End, Historic Houston, Interiors, Recycling, Warehouse Space

Demolitions

10/30/12 2:34pm

Goode Company Planning a Kirby-Side Parking Garage

Industrial Properties, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

3 Comments

A parking garage is planned on Westpark just west of Kirby Dr., to serve the Goode Company Taqueria and Goode Company Seafood restaurants that sandwich it. The new garage will replace the stylin’ 1966 glazed-brick-front Elgin Butler Brick Co. office building and adjacent warehouse that have served as Goode Company’s offices and commissary since 1988. Together, the modern buildings measure more than 14,000 sq. ft.

77098, Demolitions, Industrial Buildings, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

Buying and Selling

09/14/12 2:21pm

Hummus and Falafel Taking Over for Cold Chicken in Second Ward

Industrial Properties, Quicklink, Second Ward

3 Comments

HUMMUS AND FALAFEL TAKING OVER FOR COLD CHICKEN IN SECOND WARD Pita Pal plans to turn the 93,000-sq.-ft. former refrigerated processed meats factory at the corner of Canal St. and North Palmer east of Downtown that it just bought from Tyson Foods into a well-oiled hummus, salad, and falafel-making machine — powered by 100 new employees, and maybe another 100 later. A full 39,000 sq. ft. of the warehouse space on the 4-acre site is refrigerated; when Tyson ran it there was room for 1,300 workers. Pita Pal president Melissa Navon tells reporter Molly Ryan it may be tough to find experienced food-service workers in Houston, but that she expects to find enough experienced oil industry and medical personnel to meet the company’s needs. [Houston Business Journal] Photo of 3100 Canal St.: LoopNet

77003, Buying and Selling, Industrial Properties, Second Ward

Industrial Properties

07/27/12 1:55pm

Where All Those New Chemical Plants Are Going

Proposed Developments, Quicklink

1 Comment

WHERE ALL THOSE NEW CHEMICAL PLANTS ARE GOING It’s Houston’s plastics boom! “Chemical companies from around the world are flocking to the Houston area,” declares the Houston Business Journal, “to take advantage of vast amounts of cheap natural gas, which is used as a chemical feedstock.” The publication counts 8 new or expanded facilities. This handy map shows where they’re headed: Baytown (a new ethane cracker at Chevron Phillips Chemical and expanded ethylene and polyethylene facilities at the ExxonMobil plant), Old Ocean on Hwy. 25 (2 new polyethylene facilities, also for Chevron Phillips), Freeport off Brazosport Boulevard (an ethylene cracker for Dow Chemical), 8280 Sheldon Rd. in Channelview (an expansion of LyondellBasell’s existing ethane facility), 1515 Miller Cut-Off Rd. in La Porte (expanding LyondellBasell’s ethylene plant there), near Alvin on FM 2004 (more ethylene processing at INEOS’s Chocolate Bayou plant), and Clear Lake (a new methanol production plant at the existing Celanese facility). Welcome! [Houston Business Journal] Map: Houston Business Journal

Chemical Plants, Proposed Developments

Fifth Ward

06/21/12 12:02pm

Along the Shores of Buffalo Bayou

Houston Ship Channel, Industrial Properties, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing

24 Comments

ALONG THE SHORES OF BUFFALO BAYOU Catie Dixon comes up with a few gems in her interview with the team marketing the 136-acre campus HQ at 4100 Clinton Dr. in the southern portion of the Fifth Ward just east of Downtown that Halliburton spinoff KBR has just put up for sale. HFF has given a name to what may be the “largest infill site” near a major U.S. Central Bus District: “Cityscape on Buffalo Bayou.” And members of the sales team believe it’s ripe for a mixed-use development, now that KBR’s industrial buildings have been demolished. Five office buildings dating from the early seventies (totaling 720,000 sq. ft.) and a 36,000-sq.-ft. employee center are still there. The property’s outstanding “water feature” is a mile of frontage on Houston’s scenic Ship Channel. [Bisnow] Image: HFF

77020, Fifth Ward, Houston Ship Channel, Industrial Properties, Land for Sale, Real Estate Marketing

Hazards

04/19/12 11:33am

Smelt on the Banks of the Houston Ship Channel

Houston Ship Channel, Industrial Properties, Quicklink, Toxic Sites

3 Comments

SMELT ON THE BANKS OF THE HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL Included in USA Today‘s national list of “ghost factories” — forgotten lead smelting sites that have left behind toxic particles in the nearby soil — is the Lead Products Co. site at 709 N. Velasco St., just south of the Ship Channel a mile and a half east of Downtown. The TCEQ tells the newspaper that the site was a secondary lead smelter until 1968: “Contamination at the site is being addressed under a voluntary cleanup program and has focused on the disposal of lead battery casings at the site and on the adjoining KQXT transmitter property, the state said. Cleanup actions have included construction and placement of an earthen cap. Groundwater contamination also has been investigated, the state said.” Helpfully, Lead Products Co. has a “ghost” website to go along with its “ghost” factory. [USA Today] Photo of adjacent Cary St. play area: Lead Products Co.

77003, Hazards, Houston Ship Channel, Industrial Pollution, Toxic Sites

Industrial Properties

02/07/12 6:18pm

Combined Italian Winery and Piping Products Plant Opening in Westland Business Park

Northwest Houston, Openings and Closings, Quicklink

1 Comment

COMBINED ITALIAN WINERY AND PIPING PRODUCTS PLANT OPENING IN WESTLAND BUSINESS PARK What could better symbolize this city’s international sophistication and industriousness than the construction of an Italian winery in a Houston business park off West Rd. and Eldridge? Easy: Putting the winery inside a 60,000 sq.-ft. pipe-machining plant in said business park. Stefano Farina brand Chianti, Barolo, barbaresco, and prosecco will be fermented and bottled in a 5,000-sq.-ft. winery with its own separate cooling and ventilation systems after the dual facilities open, likely in March. Grape juice will be shipped there from the Farina Group’s wineries in Tuscany and Piedmont. Meanwhile, next door, the same company’s ITEX Piping Products plant will produce stainless steel flanges, stud bolts, nipples, swages and various piping products for Houston-area oil and gas businesses — from steel forged in the company’s Western European plants. [Houston Business Journal] Photo: Stefano Farina

77041, Industrial Properties, Northwest Houston, Office Parks, Openings and Closings, Wineries

Demolitions

02/07/12 1:06pm

The Clearings on Clinton

Fifth Ward, Industrial Properties, Landscape

30 Comments

“They have been taking down buildings like crazy the past few weeks and we are wondering what is planned,” writes a reader from the lower Fifth Ward, who wants to know what’s going on along Clinton Dr. near Jensen. More’s been coming down, apparently, than just the former KBR warehouses. “This morning,” read a note sent to Swamplot yesterday, “there was a Sheriff substation across the street, this afternoon it is a pile of twisted metal.” The demo work on Clinton Dr. just east of Gregg St. continues: “I can hear the bulldozer over there piling up debris as I send this,” reads a note from this morning. And here’s a pic from today of what’s left of it:

77020, Demolitions, Fifth Ward, Industrial Areas, Landscape

Buildings for Sale

02/03/12 1:51pm

Oak Grove Beach Volleyball Bar Update: Who’s Going To Serve?

Industrial Properties, Oak Grove

2 Comments

Following up on that former warehouse at 954 Wakefield St. in Oak Grove that last spring looked like it was well on its way to becoming a new beach volleyball venue, a passerby reports a couple of seemingly contradictory signs. On the one hand, there’s now a TABC notice taped to a window, dated earlier in January, which indicates that HFL Construction is applying for an alcohol license for this location. And the volleyball courts (at left in the above photo) look a bit more complete than they did last April. On the other hand, there’s now also a for-sale sign with the HFL Construction logo on it posted in front of the peoperty, the reader says.

Previously on Swamplot: On the Beach in Oak Grove

Photos: Swamplot inbox

77018, Alcohol Licenses, Attractions, Bars and Clubs, Buildings for Sale, Industrial Properties, Oak Grove

Comments

12/22/11 11:55pm

Comment of the Day: They Still Make It Here