Pipe and Steel Firm Expands to Houston

LaBarge Pipe & Steel Co. has begun construction on the renovation of the 102,362-sf industrial building it has purchased for use as a fusion bond epoxy coating facility. The building sits atop 38 acres at 400 S. Sheldon in far northeast Houston, which Stephen J. Kozak, general manager/national accounts for LaBarge tells GlobeSt.com will house a pipe yard. Kozak says the firm plans to hire between 25 and 30 employees at the site. Gray Gilbert, VP with the Houston office of CB Richard Ellis, represented LaBarge in the sale.

Kozak says the property was the right fit for his firm, because it was one of the few available options with enough acreage to accommodate LaBarge's needs. The firm also has a sales office in the FM 1960 area of northwest Houston that Kozak says will stay intact.

The land and improvements are part of a 55-acre property put up for sale by Tubular Processors USA Ltd. of Houston. Doyle Toups, SVP with Grubb & Ellis Co.'s Houston office represented Tubular Processors in the sale of the 38 acres carved out by LaBarge. He says it took less than six months to put the property under contract to LaBarge. Toups adds that he received one other offer on the property in that time.

According to Toups, the asking price for the property was approximately $63,000 per acre with the sales price coming in just south of that number. He adds that the remaining 17 unsold acres are still on the market.

Toups says his client, Tubular Processors, sold the enormous property in conjunction with the closing of the business due to the weak pipe fabrication industry.