Urban Logistics Realty JV Sells Houston Industrial Asset

American First National Bank provided the acquisition financing.

Aerial shot of Urban District 290, an industrial park in Houston.
Urban District 290 comprises two industrial buildings that came online last year. Image courtesy of Urban Logistics Realty

A joint venture between Urban Logistics Realty and Formation Interests—an investment fund advised by Crow Holdings Capital—has sold Urban District 290, a 238,200-square-foot, shallow bay industrial property in Houston. CBRE represented the seller.

According to the Harris County public records, BZO Wheels Houston acquired the asset, financing the purchase with two loans totaling $40 million, issued by American First National Bank.

The partnership broke ground on the two-building project in 2022 and the industrial park debuted one year later. Inwood Bank provided financing while Burton Construction served as general contractor. Powers Brown Architecture and Kimley-Horn provided architectural and engineering services, respectively.


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Building 1 is a side-load facility measuring 64,800 square feet, while the cross-dock Building 2 encompasses 173,400 square feet. The industrial campus has a total of 45 dock-high doors, 30 trailer parks and three oversized drive-in ramps. Additionally, the park features 32-foot clear heights and ESFR sprinkler systems.

Located at 5610 Bingle Road, the infill industrial campus is less than 1 mile from U.S. Route 290 and 13 miles northwest of downtown Houston. George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Port of Houston are roughly 25 and 20 miles away, respectively.

CBRE Executive Vice Presidents Nathan Wynne and Jason Dillee negotiated on behalf of the partnership.

Houston’s lack of zoning leads to infill developments

Houston is the largest city in the U.S. without a formal zoning code. Without a clear delineation of different land uses, developers rely on codes, regulations and deed restrictions. Therefore, infill industrial properties may be more common and rise side-by-side with residential homes on the same block.

A partnership between Investment & Development Ventures and Standard Real Estate Investments is planning such a project. Construction on the infill, 463,000-square-foot development is slated to start by the end of the year.  

Changing hands in the Houston industrial market

Metro Houston’s industrial sales volume totaled $1.6 billion as of August, according to a CommercialEdge report. Assets traded at $106 per square foot during the first eight months of the year, below the national average of $132 per square foot.

In one of the interval’s larger transactions, KKR purchased a 12-building logistics park in southwest Houston for $234 million. Artis Real Estate Investment Trust sold the approximately 1.8 million-square-foot campus.

The market’s industrial rents grew by 4.0 percent year-over-year through August, once again lagging the national average of 7.2 percent, the same report shows. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate clocked in at 7.7 percent in August, above the national average of 6.7 percent.

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