HOUSTON-A 22,600-sf office/warehouse on a 2.3-acre site, currently under construction in the Avondale Business Park, has been leased to Test Inc. The company, a division of the locally headquartered Natco Group, expects a January 2005 completion and move-in to the northwest Houston development.

The locally based Clay Development & Construction Co. bought the Avondale Business Park in June from Tollway Interests Inc. Robert Clay negotiated the 10-year lease for his company while Randy Wilhelm of NAI Partners Commercial in Houston represented the tenant, now located in the West Memorial Office Park along Interstate 10.

The Avondale Business Park, with 3.5 acres remaining for build-out, is located along Beltway 8 between West Little York Road and Hammerly Drive. It also includes a 77,875-sf office/warehouse occupied by JDR Cable Systems.

Clay Development is handling the design, construction and landscape architecture for a building with a 50% office finish-out. The developer has completed several other projects in the region, including Tanner Freeport Business Park near the intersection of Tanner and Brittmoore roads and the Brittmoore-Tanner Business Park, both in the northwest market. The developer specializes in industrial build-to-suits for sale or lease.

According to Clay, this is the last land rush in the northwest because there is less and less acreage for industrial use close to US Highway 290 and the Beltway. As a result, he says negotiations were fast-paced since the firm, a supplier of wellhead equipment, systems and services, wanted find a good location before the sites were gone.