Houston-based Vigavi Realty, an industrial developer, has several projects underway including some speculative space in Pasadena, Katy and near George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The company's set to break ground on two speculative, 20,000- square-foot buildings within Bay Oaks Business Park, a 30-acre industrial park half a mile away from East Sam Houston Parkway South near Genoa Red Bluff Road.
The buildings will sit on 8.5 acres that Vigavi purchased from Houstonbased IDV, the park's original developer. JLL will lease the buildings, per a JLL release.
Christen Hatfield, a development associate with Vigavi Realty, said the company's mostly seen interest from service companies for petrochemical companies in or near the Port of Houston.
The buildings should deliver in the first quarter of 2018. Additionally, Vigavi recently delivered a 36,000- square-foot design-build industrial property for Chicago-based HydroTex at 11802 Fairmont Parkway. HydroTex owns and occupies the 36,000-square-foot property, which was designed by Terry Kennedy of Munson Kennedy Partnership.
JLL's Mark Nicholas and Richard Quarles negotiated the terms of the land sale on behalf of Vigavi, and Lee & Associates' Preston Yaggi and Stephen Kuper represented HydroTex.
Moving forward, Vigavi's about to break ground on a speculative 14,000-square-foot tilt-wall, grade-level manufacturing building in Parkside Capital's West Ten Business Park Park in Katy, Hatfield said.
In 2015, Vigavi Realty bought 35 acres for its park, West Ten Industrial Park, within Parkside's 470-acre business park.
And Vigavi recently closed on eight acres in West 529 Industrial Park at the Grand Parkway and West 529, Hatfield said. The company's working to finalize a deal with a 75,000-square-foot industrial user.
Vigavi also owns 50 acres within Hardy Industrial Park at FM 1960 and the Hardy Toll Road, near IAH. The company's already built four speculative buildings within Hardy Industrial Park; those buildings have since leased.
In two or three months, Vigavi will break ground on three more speculative industrial properties at Hardy Industrial Park, all containing around 15,000- to 20,000-square-feet of space.
The company had another land site under contract for a distribution user, said Hatfield, but it fell through based on the property's high tax rate of 3.2 percent.
Increasing property valuations throughout Pasadena, La Porte and Harris County are pushing more and more distribution users to face tax rates of 3 percent or more, Hatfield said, a figure that deters many of them from closing deals.
"It used to be that nobody really asked about the tax rate, but it’s at the forefront of everyone's minds," Hatfield said. "It’s a question we get every time now, especially with distribution users."
(c) Houston Business Journal