New Panama Canal Finally Delivers for Houston: New 500,000-SF Development Coming
May 19, 2017
HOUSTON – The expanded Panama Canal, which allows exceptionally large ships from Asia to reach Houston, has contributed a benefit to the Houston economy – a new 500,000-SF industrial development, partly prompted by the canal expansion.
The deal: Houston-based development firm, Avera Cos. just acquired 40 acres in the TGS Cedar Port Industrial Park in Chambers County near Baytown, Texas. Avera Cos. will develop a 500,000 SF rail-served distribution facility for Vinmar International, a Houston-based petrochemical marketer and distributor.
The user: Vinmar is a major user of the Panama Canal. A huge wide-lane expansion of the canal, completed June 26, 2016, allows larger ships and more containerized cargo to pass.
“Vinmar is one of the largest users of the expanded Panama Canal and as such justifies the Port of Houston vision in expanding its container terminals,” said William F. “Bill” Scott, President of TGS Cedar Port Partners, the developer of the Baytown industrial park. “Cedar Port has a global reach supported by the two Port of Houston world class container ports near the park. We are thrilled to see this trend continue to grow as Vinmar International enters the park.”
In recent years, there has been some debate about the benefits that the Panama Canal would actually deliver to Houston.
The rail: The Avera development for Vinmar will include 10,000 feet of rail.
“We made the commitment to invest millions of dollars of capital improvements into the park for major rail expansion projects which has given us the opportunity to attract international companies like Vinmar,” Scott said.
TGS Cedar Port Partners, is under construction – and on schedule – to complete a railcar storage expansion project by 2017 that will increase the capacity of its storage yard to 3,000 railcars.
TGS acquired the 11,000 acres in the Cedar Port Industrial Park in December 2014. Since then, a number of industrial and distribution projects have been completed, including a 1 million SF distribution facility by Clay Development for the IKEA furniture retailer.
Also, 200 acres was sold for as a site for a 750,000-SF facility for Ravago Americas. The project should be ready first quarter of 2018
The donuts: Also coming soon to Cedar Port is the Oasis Truck Stop, which is under construction at the corner of Hwy 99 and FM 1405. The truck stop will include a Dunkin Donuts outlet.
John Simons, Partner with NAI Partners, said: “TGS will now deliver Phase III at Cedar Port Industrial Park, which is an approximately 3,000-acre tract providing rail served bulk distribution and manufacturing sites. To meet the current market demand, Phase III will have the ability to accommodate smaller rail-served site requirements in the 14 to 20 acre size range.”
In the Avera deal, Simons, along with John Ferruzzo and Joel Michael, all Partners with NAI Partners represented the seller, TGS Cedar Port Partners, during negotiations. Craig Cavalier attorney at law represented TGS Cedar Port Partners in the transaction.
May 19, 2017 Realty News Report Copyright 2017