Northeast business parks are increasing
Transportation, logistics and warehouse companies settling in convenient area
The northeast area of Greater Houston, specifically the areas around Humble and Generation Park, became a hub for transportation and logistics of goods in and out of Houston during the past decade and spawned a number of business parks.
“The existence and overall success of companies in Lake Houston, especially those in transportation, logistics, distribution and warehousing industry, is tied just as much or more so to the ease of access to local, regional, national and global markets that comes as a result of our natural geographical advantage; strategically positioned near Bush, Interstate 69, Beltway 8, and the Grand Parkway, with prime access to Port of Houston,” said Michael Prats, vice president for the Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership.
Several of those business parks were developed by Houston-based Adkisson Group, and have either recently completed construction or are expected to begin another phase of development.
Two of those business parks are Logistics Park at World Houston, located on Lee Road, and the IAH Humble Business
Center, near Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The Adkisson Group completed the construction on the Logistics Park at World Houston and is leasing the space.
The IAH Humble Business Center is leasing their Phase I section, which consists of eight buildings, and plans to begin construction on Phase II.
“The buildings that we are building are the smaller office/warehouse, for lease or for sale. There is just a demand for that smaller office/warehouse building,” said Steve Adkisson, principal for the Adkisson Group.
Larger facilities, such as the Logistics Park at World Houston, are suited for larger logistics operations that need closer access to the airport, Ship Channel and Interstate 69, Adkisson said.
One of the largest and most recent logistics companies to move to Northeast Houston is Stolt-Nielsen Ltd., which purchased a six acre tract of land at Generation Park last year with plans to move a part or their North American operations there in the next two years.
“Their arrival just does more to re-enforce the fact that Lake Houston area is a transportation and logistics hub whose success is not so much primarily tied to the price of oil but is more a result of (the) Lake Houston area’s niche as a prime location for the transportation, logistics, distribution and warehousing industry cluster that has long called the Lake Houston area their home,” Prats said.
“This area has a strong cluster of businesses that makes this area, especially with the airport, a logistics, distribution and warehousing cluster.”
By the same token, the expansion in the northeast Houston region by larger employers like Jetco, FMC Technologies and Stolt Nielsen, M&D Distributors and Costco comes on the heels of commercial and industrial business and real estate growth in Lake Houston during the past two years, while other companies that have been in the region for a while, such as DeLorean Motor Company, DGM, DB Schenker, K2 Logistics, Aviation and Marketing International, DHL, Aries Freight, Green Tree Transportation, Humble Machine Works, Schuff Steel, Byrne Metals, Lawler Foods, Forged Components, Houston Plating and Coatings and Superior Threaded Products have all expanded operations in the region in the past several years, Prats said.
“There are 26 headquarters in the Lake Houston area, and the bulk of those are in the logistics and distribution industry,” he said.
“We have Houston area businesses that are realizing the advantage (having) that type of business in the area, and we have businesses from outside of Houston who come to do business here.”