HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – The Coca-Cola bottling facility near West University Place – expected to be vacated in a couple of years when Coke moves to the suburbs – will be one of the most potent redevelopment sites to hit the market in years.
“The Coca-Cola site will attract the attention of all the quality developers in our market,” says Colliers International’s Marshall S. Clinkscales Jr., a veteran real estate broker who has been active in the area.
“I would expect strong interest and competition for the site. The most likely use of the tract is mixed-use with retail, restaurants and multifamily. The multifamily occupancy level in that sector is currently 91 percent, and the strong demographics of the area will certainly support retail and restaurant uses. Hotel use will also likely be in play,” Clinkscales says.
The owner of the West University area Coke site, Arca Continental, one of the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottlers, recently announced that its subsidiary Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages had acquired a large tract in Hines’ Pinto Business Park. It will spend $250 million to build a 1 million SF plant there.
That means the old Coca-Cola plant on Bissonnet Street will become expendable after 70 years of service.
Its characteristics:
Location. Just outside the city limits of the affluent West University Place. A mile from Greenway Plaza. Between Kirby Drive and Buffalo Speedway. An easy drive to downtown or the Galleria or the Texas Medical Center. The site is bordered by Westpark on the north and Bissonnet on the south. Specifically, it’s at the northwest corner of Bissonnet and Wakeforest.
Size: 15.57 acres in two tracts. There’s a 14-acre tract at 2800 Bissonnet and it goes back to Westpark with a lot of frontage on Wakeforest. Plus there’s 1.6 acres on the east side of Wakeforest, near Westpark, used for parking.
Value: TBD by market. The Harris County Appraisal District has placed the value at $56,620,835 for both parcels. When it hits the market – whether its in 2018, 2019 or 2020 – it will bring a lot more than $56 million. That’s because it won’t be industrial land any longer. It will be much more.
What about the 1.6-acre parcel on the east side of Wakeforest? It’s next to Goode Company Seafood and a U.S. Postal Service facility. Perhaps it could be parking for the new mixed-use project, Clinkscales says, or a freestanding restaurant.
Hanover Co. and Martin Fein Interests already have multifamily developments within a quarter mile of the Coca-Cola site. Maybe Bissonnet could be ready for some high-rise development. Maybe the “Ashby High Rise” developers will give up on their 1717 Bissonnet site and come on the west side of Kirby Drive.
The Coca-Cola bottling plant opened on Bissonnet in 1950. A suburban site when Houston was a smaller place. The population was 596,163.
The Coke site is a rarity. There aren’t many industrial properties remaining in this part of Houston, unless you count the Houston Chronicle facility, where they slosh around a lot of ink.
But at least we know the Coca-Cola site is environmentally clean. Spilling a little Diet Coke on the ground is not going to make it a brownfield site.
June 9, 2018 Realty News Report Copyright 2018