Tesla advertising for jobs, applying for permits in city
near Katy
Tesla appears to be preparing a large new industrial
facility west of Houston in a project that further deepens the electric
vehicle-maker’s investments in Texas about a year after billionaire Elon Musk
moved its headquarters to Austin.
Little is known about Tesla’s plans, but the Fortune 500
company signed a lease late last year for about 1.03 million square feet at 111
Empire West, part of the 300-acre Empire West Business Park in Brookshire,
according to research reports from real estate brokerages Cushman & Wakefield
and Savills. The landlord and developer of the park, Dallas-based Stream Realty
Partners, declined to comment. Tesla officials did not respond to a request for
comment.
A certificate of occupancy issued by the city of Brookshire
in October names Tesla in Building 9 at Empire West, about 6 miles west of Katy
and 36 miles west of downtown Houston.
Mike Barnes, Brookshire's interim city administrator, said
he didn't know details about a lease, but added that Tesla officials have been
in communication with the city's permitting office. Permits are being processed
for a portion of the building but haven't been issued, city officials said.
“We’re familiar with the Tesla project primarily from a
permitting perspective. Some of their engineering-construction folks have come
in with regards to initiating some dialogue,” Barnes said Tuesday.
Although Austin is the focal point of Tesla's manufacturing
presence in Texas, with its roughly 4.3 million-square-foot, $1.1 billion
Gigafactory there, opening a large industrial facility in Brookshire would
raise the small city's profile among industrial developers and auto
manufacturers.
“If that indeed comes to fruition, that will give us
bragging rights," Barnes said. "A company of international renown
like Tesla choosing Brookshire, Texas, really helps us diversify and enhances
greater Houston's standing in the global marketplace.”
Since moving its headquarters to Austin in December 2021,
Tesla has spread its tentacles across Texas. It opened a large battery storage
project in Angleton, north of Lake Jackson, and applied for tax incentives for
a proposed plant in Nueces County where it would produce battery-grade lithium
hydroxide used in electric vehicle batteries. Much of Musk’s empire has
followed the Tesla move, including office and warehouses for the Boring Co., a
tunneling and infrastructure firm, in Pflugerville; offices for Neuralink in
Del Valle; and facilities for aerospace firm SpaceX in Bastrop County, the
Austin-American Statesman has reported. SpaceX has had a spaceport in Boca
Chica for almost a decade.
Other than the Angleton battery storage site and a handful
of service centers and showrooms in Houston, Musk’s manufacturing and logistics
empire has largely passed over the Houston area. The Brookshire business park
is along Interstate 10, which connects Houston to Highway 71, a key route to
Austin.
The presence of Tesla in the Texas capital spurred a real
estate boom in south Austin, as commercial and residential real estate
developers flocked to the area around the Gigafactory, which is expected
eventually to employ about 5,000 workers.
The Austin manufacturing facility, with about 4.3 million
square feet, is significantly larger than the facility proposed in Brookshire,
so the economic impact on the Houston region wouldn’t reach the same scale. The
Austin Business Journal reported this week that Tesla plans to invest another
$717 million in adding 1.4 million square feet to the Gigafactory.
It’s not clear what Tesla would do with a facility in
Brookshire. In addition to manufacturing trucks and cars, Tesla also sells a
host of battery and solar panel products for residential and commercial
customers. A Brookshire-area facility could be used for manufacturing or as a
warehouse or logistics facility.
Leasing documents describe the building as a warehouse with
more than 300 trailer parking spaces, a large truck court and docking
capabilities intended to enhance efficiency in loading and unloading products.
Tesla is advertising a handful of job listings in the
Brookshire area for warehouse and logistics positions, too. One position for an
associate manager in production control advertised on social media platform
LinkedIn describes needing someone to oversee cell materials production with
experience in handling, logistics and supply-chain management in a
manufacturing environment.
As of early January, Brookshire officials said they were
unaware of any tax incentives in the works for Tesla’s proposed plant in the
city. Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. Tesla was awarded about $64 million worth of tax incentives from
Travis County and the Del Valle school district before it moved to Austin.
The Tesla lease would be among the five largest industrial
real estate deals signed in the Houston region last year, according to Cushman
& Wakefield research. Tesla would join an area near Katy and Brookshire
that has been a hotbed for industrial growth in recent years, with large
distribution centers for Ross Dress for Less, Amazon, Medline and Igloo. Last
year real estate developers completed 3.4 million square feet of new industrial
space in the west Houston market, which stretches along Interstate 10 west of
Highway 6, according to research from the real estate brokerage JLL.
Another 6 million square feet of industrial
space was under construction in that area as of the fourth quarter, according
to JLL.
Written by Marissa Luck from the Houston Chronicle: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/tesla-brookshire-houston-distribution-elon-musk-17711405.php