(By Dale King) SUGAR LAND, Texas — Land prices are stable in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, despite a decline in the energy industry, says land specialist Carlos Bujosa, a vice president with Transwestern.
He said land prices in the area are “stable. We don’t anticipate any across-the-board land value declines; we haven’t seen any yet.”
Land values should remain stable, Bujosa added, through the rest of the year.
When oil prices dropped in 2015, “a lot of oil companies started laying off employees,” Bujosa said. “About 45 percent of firms are driven by oil. The rest, which were driven by the national economy, are still doing well.”
Bujosa recently handled the sale of a six-acre tract at the edge of the Sugar Land Business Park recently sold for a school. Bujosa and Transwestern’s David Schwarz, brokered the deal for the seller, Thirteen Eldridge Ltd.
Bujosa said the school will not be part of the Fort Bend County Independent School District.
The school will be within the Sugar Land Business Park, a 1,000-acre master-planned development near the intersection of highways 59 and 90 and adjacent to established residential communities. Maps of the park show the building will be located along the east edge of Eldridge Road, about a half-mile south of the intersection with West Airport Road.
“There are homes right across the street, on the west side of Eldridge,” Bujosa said.
The six-acre school transaction is one of a string of deals in the Sugar Land Business Park.
“This transaction represented a significant win for our client, as a school will complement the veterinarian clinic and proposed Alzheimer’s clinic on three previously sold acres. These three services create a cohesive synergy in the park, boding well for the four acres that remain available for sale.”
Sugar Land Business Park is owned by Planned Community Developers Ltd. The business park is home to a number of large companies, including Tramontina, which sells kitchen equipment; Schlumberger, a provider of technology to the oil and gas industry; a Boise Cascade distribution center and Finger Furniture. Bujosa said the larger industrial firms are located in the center, with retail along the edges, particularly in shopping plazas along the more heavily traveled streets such as Eldridge.
The area is also home to other firms such as Fluor Corp., an engineering construction company; Noble Drilling Corp. and Baker Hughes, provider of oil field services. Two years ago, Texas Instruments opened a 160,000 square foot, three-story office building at the northeast corner of U.S. 59 and University Boulevard. A total of 375 employees work there.
June 13, 2016