The project is the first spec industrial development for the area in a decade. The acreage is situated at 1020 E. Barbours Cut Blvd. and across the street from the terminal's entrance.

Doyle Toups, senior vice president with the Houston office of Grubb & Ellis Co., represented the buyers in the land purchase. Toups tells GlobeSt.com that the preliminary plan is to develop up to another 270,000 sf on the tract. Additional land is under contract, but he won't say any more other than no other acreage is available for comparable development. And, he adds, it's a definite "homerun." The 180,000-sf first phase is to deliver in December. Toups is negotiating with Frontier Logistics, based in Kingsport, TN, for a portion of the initial structure.

Toups expects customs brokers, container-stripping operations and plastic pellet handlers will be vying for the space since Barbours Cut is operating above its 100% capacity. Toups also suspects some container strippers and customs brokers now in the Barbours Cut Terminal will be looking for new facilities as the Port of Houston absorbs more space for its use. Bernard Perlmutter of Houston's Perlmutter and Associates represented the seller, First National Bank of Bellaire, TX.