Stream Plans Empire West’s Next Phase

Stream Realty's Lee Belland and the Empire West business park (Stream Realty, Rosenberger Construction)

By Brandon Sams

Research by Christian Bautista

Stream Realty Partners plans to start construction on the final phase of its Empire West industrial complex.

Phase three of the Dallas-based developer’s most extensive Houston area development is set to begin in December with the construction of a 616,000-square-foot industrial building costing $31 million, or about $50 per square foot.

Dubbed Building 10, the void dark shell building is planned as the last project in the 10-building complex, located on Empire Boulevard in Brookshire, 8 miles west of Katy.

The expected completion date is December 2025. Power Brown Architecture, the Houston-based firm that designed the other nine buildings, is leading the design. 

“This building is arguably the best located in the entire project and our team intentionally designed the project this way,” said Matteson Hamilton, Stream Realty’s executive manager and partner. “Given the success of Empire West’s first two phases, our team felt it was important to proactively design and permit what will be the final building in the project…we are very bullish on its future performance.”

Empire West started construction in 2020 with three speculative distribution buildings, including space dedicated to offices, totaling 1 million square feet. The first phase was completed just over two years ago. The first three buildings are 100 percent occupied, according to a news release. Phase two finished in August with the construction of six buildings spanning 2.3 million square feet. 

Stream owns 38 investment properties totaling almost 18 million square feet and manages assets worth over $2.2 billion, according to an August press release.

Houston’s industrial market has remained strong while other sectors, such as hospitality and office, have faced distress. As the second-largest industrial market in the Southwest, Houston experienced steady growth in 2022, with industrial projects dominating its landscape. 

The market added 6.6 million square feet of new supply in the first quarter of 2023, and construction activity reached nearly 31 million square feet, according to a report by JLL.