Floor and Decor to build 1.5M-SF distribution center near Baytown
February 17, 2021
Atlanta-based Floor and Décor Outlets of America has acquired nearly 100 acres near Baytown with plans to build a 1.5 million-square-foot distribution center, which will service the south-central United States.
The property is located within the massive TGS Cedar Port Industrial Park, on the corner of Cedar Port Parkway and Fisher Road.
James Scott, president of TGS Cedar Port Partners, declined to disclose the purchase price Floor and Décor paid for the property. But he said the company’s planned distribution center is among the largest that the industrial park has seen since Trans-Global Solutions Inc. formed the partnership that purchased Cedar Port Industrial Park in December 2014.
John Simons, a partner with NAI Partners who represented TGS in the deal, said Floor and Décor had been looking for a sizable property in Houston to build a regional distribution center for about the past two years. While the company already has a presence in Houston, it was looking to bring all of its operations under one roof.
“The flexibility of the site and the ability to build a 1.5 million-square-foot facility really appealed to them,” Simons said. “They were also interested in the ease of access. Once you hit the Grand Parkway, it’s a straight shot without any lights for their drivers. They were also very interested in having rail access for moving products in and out.”
Cedar Port Industrial Park has been called the largest rail- and barge-served industrial park in the United States. The industrial park spans 15,000 acres, with more than 11,000 acres available for development.
Floor and Décor is wasting no time in getting the project underway. The company wants to be able to move into the facility by the end of the year.
After closing on the property on Dec. 26, the company immediately began pushing to get construction underway. Scott said site work on the property began two days after the closing.
That tight timeline meant that 2021 Trans-Global Solutions Inc., the site civil contractor, has pulled out all the stops to get the site prepped for construction.
As part of the deal, TGS agreed to ensure that the site would have access to water, wastewater and fire pumping systems. TGS installed a 300,000-gallon pumping tank and a 2 million-gallon lift station to meet those needs.
The company also installed more than a mile of concrete roadways to provide access to the fully entitled site.
Meanwhile, Floor and Décor imported more than 350,000 yards of premium sheet fill dirt to build up the site. The company is also using spread footers to support the foundation, which is expected to be completed in March.
“This is really going to be a gold-plated foundation when it’s finished,” Scott said. “They ran into some trouble with the foundation at one of their other sites, and they’re not going to have that happen again. It’s costing them several million more to go this route.”
TGS has more than 50 pieces of civil equipment working on the site.
As for the facility itself, the building was designed with a cross-dock floor plan with a 33-foot clear height. Scott said the rest of the 99.3-acre property will be used for trailer and employee parking.
Once the foundation is completed, Houston-based Arch-Con Corp., which is acting as general contractor, will begin work on the walls, which will be installed in the common tilt-wall fashion.
“With this push to be in by the end of the year, they’re going to have to pour the walls, one right after the other,” Scott said.
For TGS, the deal with Floor and Décor is just the latest in a series of transactions within Cedar Port Industrial Park.
Scott said the park has a total of more than 17 million square feet of industrial space either already standing within the park or under contract. The industrial park is home to distribution centers for Amazon, Home Depot, Ikea and Walmart, among other tenants.
In September, Dallas-based Hunt Southwest Real Estate Development broke ground on a 1 million-square-foot speculative industrial project in the industrial park.
Hunt Southwest Real Estate Development’s new facility will feature 40-foot clear height, LED warehouse lighting, ESFR sprinkler system and expansive parking for cars and trailers. The facility will also feature 25 acres of additional adjacent land, which will allow for future expansion of the building to 1.3 million square feet or for the addition of vehicle/trailer parking or outside storage.
Also last year, Houston-based real estate developer Welcome Group LLC purchased 23 acres in the park for future development, and High Street Logistics Properties paid an undisclosed amount to acquire the Cedar Crossing Distribution Center, a 129,527-square-foot property in the park, from Denver-based Mountain West Industrial Properties and Galveston-based American National Insurance Co.