HOUSTON – The Daikin Industries HVAC manufacturing plant under construction in northwest Houston is the largest tilt-wall construction project in the world.
The Daikin factory, with over 4 million square feet under roof, is being constructed as a single building and it will be bigger than any other tilt-wall project in the world, says Gray Gilbert, senior vice president of CBRE, a global realty firm.
In tilt-wall construction, concrete walls are poured at the job site and lifted – or tilted – into place.
The Daikin project, where air conditioners and furnaces will be manufactured, is located on north side of Highway 290 about three miles west of the Grand Parkway.
The factory, slated for completion in 2016, will have a 1.8-million-square-foot distribution center, 1.7 million square feet of manufacturing space with a 196,500 square foot mezzanine, 231,598 square feet of lab space and a 202,600-square-feet of office space, according to the Tilt-Up Concrete Association.
The Daikin project will have parking for 5,000 cars. About 4,000 people will be employed at the facility, as Daikin consolidates various locations in Houston and Tennessee. About 1,000 employees from a closed plant in Tennessee will be asked to relocate to Houston.
Based in Osaka, Japan, Daikin bought Houston’s Goodman Manufacturing air conditioning company in 2012 for $3.7 billion. Daikin is the world’s largest HVAC manufacturer.
Architecture for the Houston factory is by Powers Brown Architecture, LJB Inc. is the engineer and D.E. Harvey Builders is general contractor.
Sept. 8, 2015