Best Buy to build hub in Missouri City
Best Buy plans a new distribution center in Missouri City to meet consumer demands of the region’s growing population.
The 550,000-squarefoot facility planned for the intersection of Cravens Road and U.S. 90, near Beltway 8, is slated to open before the 2018 holiday shopping season.
The Minnesota-based electronics retailer plans to distribute large products, like major kitchen appliances and televisions, from the facility to nearly 60 stores throughout Texas and Louisiana. It will also deliver goods direct to online shoppers’ homes.
Best Buy expects to hire at least 40 full-time workers at the center, which will be developed by Seefried Industrial Properties and 4M Investments. A groundbreaking date has not yet been scheduled.
Missouri City’s economic development department and the Fort Bend County commissioners court provided incentives to lure the company to the southwest Houston suburb.
“This distribution center will have a tremendous economic impact on Missouri City, not only through primary jobs but also as a long-term property tax generator,” Joe Esch, the city’s economic development director, said in a statement.
Best Buy had been looking to open a distribution center in the Houston area for some time. The retailer decided to build in Missouri City because of its proximity to interstate highways, the local workforce, availability of land for development, and economic incentives, spokesman Jeff Shelman said.
Best Buy’s Missouri City facility will complement a larger regional distribution center in Ardmore, Okla., that serves 200 stores in the region. Most of Best Buy’s products in local stores are shipped from Oklahoma.
“This new facility is an opportunity for us to serve a market that wasn’t served previously,” Shelman said.
Retailers, like Amazon, Ikea and others, are expanding their distribution footprint in the area with the rise of e-commerce.
Best Buy expects to sell more than $5 billion worth of consumer electronics this year, up from $4 billion two years ago. Some of its growth has been fueled by kitchen appliances, like smart refrigerators, Shelman said.
“We’ve had great growth in online shopping,” Shelman said. “We’ve had a very steady, long growth in appliances, with 25 consecutive quarters of growth.”
Industrial development is heating up southwest of Houston, where developers can more easily find land to build new warehouses. More than 500 acres of industrial projects are under construction in Fort Bend County.
Hines is looking for a second industrial park location in the southwest Houston area after developing its 75-acre Beltway Southwest industrial park.
“The traditional industrial submarkets are all built out,” said Charlie Meyer, Hines’ industrial director. “Fort Bend County is one of the fastestgrowing counties in the area. You can serve Katy all the way down into Rosenberg and out to the Medical Center. It’s a good local distribution location.”