Foresight of Development Team Steers Levey’s Environmentally-Conscious Business Center at Five Corners Clear of Supply Disruptions and Costly Delays

HOUSTON, TX (March 28, 2022) – Nine months after Levey Group announced plans to develop The Business Center at Five Corners in partnership with ANICO Eagle, all five buildings in the Class-A Beltway 8 project are dried-in with shell-completion scheduled for April.

Click here for a fly-over and fly-thru view of the project.

Levey’s development team had the foresight to take steps early on to pay for expedited permit review, and lock in steel prices and delivery dates in order to avoid cost overruns from last year’s rapidly rising steel prices and delivery delays caused by material shortages, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages in the trucking business.

As a result of these measures, the project was delivered four months sooner compared to similar projects in what may be a sign of things to come for new warehouse projects.

“In these times, you have to circumvent the typical development process,” explains David Ebro, president of Levey Group. “That means acquiring essential materials such as structural steel, interior aluminum studs and dock-levelers, all in very limited supply, to finish off a space and secure permit approvals for build-outs long before you have tenants.”

Even before securing capital for the project, Ebro says the development team committed to the purchase of all structural steel, including a sizeable non-refundable deposit, to avoid the run-up in steel prices and ensure an on-time delivery for its project.

The team purchased and inventoried large quantities of dock-levelers and hard-to-secure aluminum studs for future build-outs before leasing to any tenants. It also designed and submitted four, 3,000 square-foot “vanilla box” spec office plans to the City of Houston for permit approval, given the city’s delays in issuing permits and strong tenant demand for immediate occupancy.

As part of Levey’s environmental sustainability initiative, the team is installing multiple electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations in various locations across the business park and a designated parking area for future EV fleet charging, among other design elements incorporated in the project.

Additional sustainability measures include using only LED lighting fixtures, both inside and outstand the warehouses, reflective white “cool” TPO roofing, low-E argon-gas filled double-pane windows, reflective white interior walls, and the use of low-VOC paints.

“Environmental sustainability is a priority,” says Ebro. “It’s part of an increasing number of our tenants’, buyers’, and capital providers’ ESG initiatives that we are committed to promoting. This is good for the environment and it’s good for business.”

Located on a 44-acre site on Beltway 8 between Post Oak Road and Hiram Clarke, the five buildings combine to span 545,574 square feet, suitable for single and multi-tenant configurations. The property offers all tenants prominent exposure across more than one-half mile of frontage on the heavily traveled Beltway 8 South Sam Houston Parkway.

Ranging from 68,760 to 139,200 square feet, the front-load, cross-dock and rear-load buildings offer ceiling clear heights from 28-32 feet with 130-foot single-building truck-court and 210-foot shared truck-court dimensions. The property also features 595 surface parking spaces.

Burton Construction is the general contractor for the project. CBRE’s Joseph Smith and Nathan Wayne are managing leasing activities for The Business Center at Five Corners.