$7.4B Texas Master-Planned Development Breaks Ground

More than 1 million square feet of speculative industrial space will be part of the first phase of Talise, a $7.4 billion master-planned community that has broken ground in Laredo, Texas, on a massive site located at the intersection of I-35, U.S. Highway 83 and Texas Highway 255.

The multi-use development is being planned by SE Legacy Development LLC, a firm established by the Walker family, which will invest $1.6 billion of their money into the 13,000-acre mega-project that will take decades to build out in Webb County near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The development will occur across five distinct neighborhoods: The Springs, The Township, The Preserve, The Vistas and The Retreat. The transformational project will include thousands of residential and multifamily developments, an industrial and manufacturing park, a town center with retail and dining, an airport and—most importantly—a new vital water source.

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The discovery of a water source within the family’s land holdings is central to the Talise development, which takes its name from a term with Native American-Iroquoian roots that means “lovely water.”  It will provide reliable water for the entire Talise master-planned community, the city of Laredo and all of Webb County. A newly established Legacy Water Supply Corp. is estimated to have the capacity to treat 50 million gallons of water daily, a benefit to the entire region. SE Legacy Development is drilling more than 40 wells to access the water.

Phase 1 plans

While the official groundbreaking was held this week, most of the work on the first phase is expected to get underway in September in two of the neighborhoods—The Township and The Springs, which will be the site of a single-family home development. The Township at Talise Logistics Park will be part of the mixed-use component. The industrial park will eventually have about 3.8 million square feet spread among 14 warehouse and distribution buildings that will be speculative or build-to-suit space for lease or purchase. Phase 1 for the industrial space calls for four buildings ranging in size from 209,040 to 718,848 square feet to be erected, according to a marketing brochure on the Talise website from Partners Real Estate. The plans also offer the option of built-to-suit office space built for each building.

Details in the Phase 1 overview include:

• Building 1 will be a 240,964-square-foot development with a 32-foot clear height, 51 dock doors and space for up to 212 cars and 138 trailers.
• Building 2 will be a 239,643-square-foot facility with a 32-foot clear height and 48 dock doors and space for up to 98 cars and128 trailers.
• Building 5 will be a 209,040-square-foot development with a 32-foot clear height and 41 dock doors and space for up to 195 cars and 104 trailers.
• Building 6 will have 359,424 square feet that is expandable to 718,848 square feet. It will have a 32-foot clear height, space for up to 93 cars and 264 trailers in the smaller footprint or up to 193 cars and 456 trailers in the expanded plan.

Laredo industrial market

The Port of Laredo is the No. 1 inland port in the U.S., according to the Talise website. It handles 15,000 commercial truck crossings and more than 280,000 railcar crossings daily. Laredo is situated 140 miles north of Monterrey, Mexico’s industrial hub and 421 miles south of the Dallas-Fort Worth market.

The Talise site is 18 miles from the World Trade International Bridge, which is one of four international bridges located in the cities of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, which connect the U.S. and Mexico over the Rio Grande. It is also 21 miles from The Laredo–Colombia Solidarity International Bridge that connects Laredo over the Rio Grande with Colombia, Nuevo León. Talise is 23 miles from the Laredo International Airport which handles more than 522 million pounds of cargo and ships to and from 60 countries across the world.