Houston-Area 1,158-Acre Logistics Park Trades

Gulf Inland Logistics Park. Image courtesy of Liberty Development Partners

Liberty Development Partners has acquired Gulf Inland Logistics Park and CMC Railroad, a 1,158-acre, rail-served industrial property in Dayton, Texas, in a transaction coordinated by Cushman and Wakefield. Liberty, a partnership between Connor Investment Real Estate and Logistics and Development Resources, plans to transform the sprawling Houston-area campus into a premier, master-planned industrial and transportation destination with the capacity to accommodate, according to previous plans for the site, more than 14.7 million square feet of development.

Gulf Inland is the very definition of a well-located industrial asset. Sited along Highway 90 and Highway 146, the property offers direct connections to the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. Additionally, the park sits within 40 miles of downtown Houston, 30 miles of Bush Intercontinental Airport, and 25 miles of the Port of Houston. Furthermore, Gulf Inland is located within 100 miles of four additional Texas ports. And, these days, the Houston industrial market really is all about the ports.

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“During the first week of June, the Port of Houston Authority announced a $1 billion project to deepen the Houston Ship Channel and increase the capacity of the port. Recent strong trade volumes, which grew by 16 percent in tonnage over the past five years, along with investments in port infrastructure are expected to support a healthy industrial market in the region over the long term,” according to a second quarter 2022 report by Savills. Buoyed by port activity, Houston’s overall industrial vacancy rate dropped to 5.8 percent in the second quarter and net absorption totaled 10.8 million square feet.

Of additional importance to Liberty’s endeavors, Gulf Inland is sited adjacent to a 200-acre property that the partnership recently acquired; the added land will allow for an expansion of the park’s capacity to accommodate Houston’s growing industrial demand.

Facilitating a transformation

Liberty’s vision for Gulf Inland is just as grand as the size of the park itself. The company proposes to convert the underutilized logistics property into a first-rate manufacturing, distribution, storage and transportation hub for industrial companies. To kick off its plans, Liberty has landed a $66.5 million loan from Trez Capital for the acquisition of the land and CMC Railroad.

With financing in place, Liberty is prepared to commence the first phase of the development endeavor at Gulf Inland, which will entail the creation of a utility district, drainage improvements, regional detention to benefit incoming industrial tenants, as well as the expansion of a road to accommodate heavy haul trucks and improve the property’s connection to Highway 90.

Cushman & Wakefield’s John Littman, Kelley Parker and Coe Parker coordinated the acquisition. Littman said, in a prepared statement, the firm has already been involved with a number of transactions pertaining to the project.