Warehouse Wednesday: Portable AC company buys acreage near Houston

It’s a good time to be in the air conditioning business. 

A portable air conditioner company near Houston is growing so fast that it’s had to scramble to pick up more real estate. KwiKool Portable Cooling Systems purchased 7.5 acres adjacent to the space it leases at 10404 Mula Road in Stafford, the Houston Chronicle reported. KwiKool is working with local developer Steve Adkisson on a building, and they expect to start construction early next year.

The Dallas-Fort Worth industrial real estate market is not as hot as it was, though. Net leasing was down about 20 percent in the second quarter, year-over-year, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing Transwestern data. Nationwide, industrial tenants such as Amazon are being cautious about taking more space. About 60 million square feet of industrial space was under construction in the Metroplex at midyear. 

“The word I would use for the industrial market is moderating,” Andrew Matheny of Transwestern told the outlet. “It’s slowing from a blistering pace of the last few years. It’s still above what we saw before the pandemic.”

BrightFarms plans to build a 476,000-square-foot greenhouse in Lorena. The New York-based indoor farming company plans to spend $60 million, or $126 per square foot to build it, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Construction could start Sept. 1 and will take 13 months. This is the second-phase of the company’s project in the town between Dallas and Austin. It started construction in June on a $100 million first phase, KCEN reported. The company plans to spend about $400 million on the four-phase project.

Taurus Investment Holdings has acquired a last-mile logistics portfolio that includes 589,000 square feet in Dallas, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The purchase comprises 12 Class B buildings in Dallas and Atlanta totaling almost 925,000 square feet. The average building size is about 77,000 square feet. 

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“While construction as a percentage of overall inventory is 5 to 7 percent in Dallas and Atlanta, it totals less than 1 percent for comparable shallow bay buildings,” said Bill Garey of Boston-based Taurus. 

Pacific Air Logistics plans to build a 70,000-square-foot warehouse in Mineral Wells, about an hour west of Fort Worth, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing. The project at 205 Holly Hill Road is expected to cost almost $13 million, or a little over $184 per square foot.

A real estate investor plans to build a retail and self-storage development in Cedar Hill, near Dallas. Wes Pool filed plans to build one story of retail and two stories of self-storage at 615 East Beltline Road. The 94,000-square-foot development is expected to cost about $14 million, according to the filing. That’s about $149 per square foot.

Public Storage plans to build a 148,000-square-foot location in Magnolia, near Houston. The three-story project on FM 2978 and Greenmoor Drive is expected to cost about $12 million, or about $81 per square foot.