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North Carolina-based Lowe's Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) will open a distribution center in New Caney that will be one of the largest among national retailers' facilities in the Houston area.
The 1.5 million-square-foot regional distribution center is expected to open in July 2021 and employ about 200 people, according to a press release from EMCID. A separate statement from a Lowe's spokesman estimated the facility will have up to 150 jobs and beginning shipping in fall 2021.
The bulk distribution center will handle "daily shipments of appliances and other bulky items, such as riding mowers, grills and patio furniture to Lowe’s cross-dock facilities for last-mile delivery to customers," making for faster and more predictable deliveries, the spokesman said. It also will replenish inventory at more than 100 stores in Texas and Louisiana.
At 1.5 million square feet, the Lowe's facility will be larger than Amazon, Ikea and Dollar Tree distribution facilities announced for the greater Houston area in recent years.
A slew of Houston-based firms in technology, consulting and legal services have been busy executing deals in recent weeks. Here's a look at some November acquisitions to be aware of in the Houston region.
PCS Software
Houston-based PCS Software, which manages a transportation management platform for the inland trucking industry, announced the acquisition of New Jersey-based UltraShipTMS, a provider of supply chain management technologies, services and consultation. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed in a Nov. 19 news release.
UltraShipTMS provides its supply chain management services to shippers in food production, packaging, manufacturing, retail and other sectors. The acquisition of UltraShipTMS will build upon PCS's transportation management and fleet management capabilities and create a single shipper-and-carrier platform.
IES Holdings
Houston-based IES Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: IESC), among the largest publicly traded companies in Houston, made two acquisitions in November.
On Nov. 19, the company announced the acquisition of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Wedlake Fabricating Inc., a manufacturer of custom generator enclosures. Wedlake will continue to operate under the same brand but join the IES infrastructure solutions segment.
"Wedlake, strategically located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, expands our geographic footprint and generator enclosure manufacturing capacity in the Midwest where we see significant growth potential," said Mike Rice, president of IES's infrastructure solutions segment. "The operational talent and expertise of the Wedlake team, combined with IES’s financial and operational resources, gives us a substantial base to capture this market opportunity."
On Nov. 5, IES announced the acquisition of K.E.P. Electric Inc., an electrical contractor specializing in the design and installation of electrical systems for single-family housing and multifamily developments. The Ohio-based company has four offices in Ohio and Kentucky and revenue of $30 million for 2019. K.E.P. also will continue to operate under the same brand but join the IES residential segment.
Onit
Houston-based Onit Inc., a developer of enterprise software offerings for legal departments, acquired New Zealand-based legal artificial intelligence company McCarthyFinch. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in a Nov. 17 press release.
The acquisition will allow Onit to expand McCarthyFinch's artificial intelligence capabilities to Onit's product offerings and legal operations management software provided by subsidiary SimpleLegal. McCarthyFinch's technology will become an integral component of Onit's new AI platform, Precedent.
Lexitas
Houston-based Lexitas, a national provider of legal support services to law firms, announced the acquisition of California-based CD Photocopy, a records company focused on workers' compensation and civil liability cases in California. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in a Nov. 16 press release.
With two locations in the Los Angeles region, the acquisition of CD Photocopy expands Lexitas' presence in southern California.
Separately, Lexitas announced the acquisition of Corpus Christi, Texas-based Marshall's Business Records on Nov. 17. Terms of that acquisition also were not disclosed.
Marshall's Business Records is a provider of medical record-retrieval services in south Texas. The firm was established by Karren Marshall in 1999.
In addition to their recent hiring XTRA Airways has increased its fleet from 1 to 3 737s and has confirmed to be hiring pilots and flight attendants. Looks like they’re serious about the start up
Investment cash from outside the Greater Houston economy is helping economic diversity inside the local economy.
Houston-based US Med-Equip acquired by private equity firm
US Med-Equip said Friday that it was acquired by a Los Angeles private equity firm in a deal that will provide the capital for the Houston medical equipment company to continue its expansion.
US Med-Equip is best known for renting equipment to hospitals and other medical providers for whom that technology would be too expensive to regularly purchase and replace. US Med-Equip owns 60,000 pieces of equipment, including ventilators, infusion pumps and incubators, scattered across its more than 40 warehouse locations.
US Med-Equip invested more than $60 million to expand inventory and warehouses to support approximately 150 Houston-area health care providers and more than 2,200 nationwide. US Med-Equip, which is privately held, said it earned $63 million in revenue in 2019.
In an alternative energy story from Polk County which is technically outside of Greater Houston
Longroad Energy plans $128M solar farm north of Houston
Boston-based Longroad Energy Partners LLC is looking to take tax incentives for a solar project north of Houston.
Longroad is looking to build a 150 megawatt solar power farm, called Umbriel Solar, in Polk County. Umbrial Solar would cost $128 million to build, with construction starting in the first quarter of 2022, assuming the project moves forward as described in its tax incentive application. Commercial operations would begin in the second quarter of 2023.
Since Microsoft wont divulge head counts lets venture some estimates of how many employees 25k sq ft will accommodate.
Now that you have a picture in your head, let’s convert that vision into some numbers.
Which of these best fits the image of what you see in your head?
High Density (80 – 150 square feet per employee): Majority open seating with rows of small desks. May have a few private offices. Often seen in companies that house many different teams within the same space, as well as for sales, technology, coworking or customer support offices.
Average Density (150 – 250 square feet per employee): Mix of open cube or desk space and private offices. Traditional office layout.
Spacious (250 – 500 square feet per employee): Majority of the space consisting of large private offices. Historically seen in law firms.
By my calculations using the numbers above. In a highest density office, 25k sq ft would accommodate about 312 employees. In the lowest density environment about 50 employees . The actual number will probably be closer to the bottom than the top so maybe 100 ?
Houston-area companies in technology, real estate services, private equity and other sectors have announced several new deals ahead of the new year.
Onit
Houston-based Onit Inc., which specializes in enterprise software offerings for legal departments, acquired Kiev, Ukraine-based document automation firm Axdraft. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed in a Dec. 17 announcement.
Axdraft will now operate as an independent subsidiary of Onit under the brand Axdraft, an Onit Company. Axdraft co-founders Yuriy Zaremba and Oleg Zaremba will work in the combined company as general manager and CTO, respectively. The deal adds 14 employees to Onit's headcount, a spokesperson confirmed.
The acquisition is Onit's second announced in 30 days. In November, the company announced the acquisition of New Zealand-based legal artificial intelligence company McCarthyFinch.
Onit is one of the Houston region's fastest-growing companies, ranking on both the Houston Business Journal's 2020 Fast 100 List and the HBJ's 2020 Fastest-Growing Houston-Area Middle Market Companies List.
Rimkus Consulting Group
Rimkus Consulting Group Inc., a forensic engineering, technical consulting and expert witness service firm based in Houston, acquired Ann Arbor, Michigan-based consultancy Applied Safety and Ergonomics, according to a Dec. 16 announcement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Applied Safety and Ergonomics provides product and safety warnings consulting, forensic and litigation support services, research and testing services, plus other offerings.
In November, Rimkus announced the acquisition of Canada-based IRC Building Sciences Group, an engineering and consulting firm specializing in roofing, building envelope, structural and pavement systems.
HungerRush
Houston-based HungerRush, a provider of restaurant management and online ordering systems, acquired OrdrAI, a provider of text and voice ordering services. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed in a Dec. 3 announcement.
The acquisition of OrdrAI will enable HungerRush to add artificial intelligence-enabled text-to-order services to its restaurant management system.
HungerRush is a portfolio of Houston-based private equity firm The CapStreet Group.
Race Rock Group
Houston-based private investment firm Race Rock Group agreed to acquire Fort Worth-based Structural & Steel Products Inc., a portfolio company of Dallas-based Highland Capital Management.
Founded in 1969, Structural & Steel Products manufactures and distributes transportation, telecommunications, transmission and utility infrastructure products.
"We are excited to be acquiring a best-in-class steel product manufacturer that aligns with Race Rock’s strategic vision and investment approach," said Donald Young, managing member of Race Rock. "We see significant growth opportunities throughout the U.S. transportation infrastructure market and look forward to finding ways to deploy SSP’s broad product portfolio to end markets throughout the country."
Stewart Information Services
Houston-based Stewart Information Services Corp. (NYSE: STC) acquired NotaryCam, a provider of online notary services. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Stewart's acquisition of NotaryCam furthers its mission of digitizing, securing and simplifying the title and closing process, Stewart said in a Dec. 3 announcement. The deal also expands Stewart's customer base outside of real estate to include financial services companies.
In October, Stewart acquired Pro Teck Valuation Intelligence, a Massachusetts-based provider of property valuation services. In September, Stewart announced that it had paid $105 million to purchase 57 title offices in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada from Colorado-based ET Investments. In June, the company acquired Overland Park, Kansas-based United States Appraisals to further strengthen its mortgage originations offerings.
Based on its 2019 revenue of $1.94 billion, Stewart Information Services was the 50th-largest company on the Houston Business Journal's 2020 Largest Public Companies List.
Benefit Concepts Inc.
Houston-based Benefit Concepts Inc., a regional insurance brokerage specializing in individual, Medicare and group benefits, has acquired all assets of Heavin, Otto & Leavitt Insurance Services, a wholesale insurance brokerage specializing in individual and small group benefits.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the Dec. 1 announcement. Heavin, Otto & Leavitt will continue to operate and support clients from its existing location in Corpus Christi, Texas, under the leadership of Will Heavin, who founded the firm in 1985.
Benefit Concepts ranked No. 4 among medium-sized companies in the Houston Business Journal's 2020 Best Places to Work awards.
A local space technology company is tapping Ellington Spaceport to develop modules for the Commercial Space Station that will replace the International Space Station currently in service, and increase Houston's economic diversity.
Axiom Space will develop its commercial space station at the Houston Spaceport, a deal that could help spur long-held ambitions for turning the spaceport into a hub of aerospace activity.
Houston-based Axiom Space plans to develop a 14-acre headquarters campus at the spaceport. It will use this campus to train private astronauts and for production of its Axiom Station. The project was announced Tuesday afternoon by Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Ellington Airport became home to the country’s 10th FAA-licensed commercial spaceport in June 2015.
Pictured is a rendering of the commercial space station being built by Axiom Space.
Photo: Axiom Space
Axiom Space is building a commercial space station. The Houston-based company was selected by NASA in January to develop a commercial module that will attach to the International Space Station. This first module is set to launch in 2024.
Through 2028, additional modules will be attached to that initial module to provide areas for housing, research and manufacturing. Ultimately, these modules will create a commercial space station that can be detached from the International Space Station when that government-run platform is retired. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...C_AfternoonRep
A local space technology company is tapping Ellington Spaceport to develop modules for the Commercial Space Station that will replace the International Space Station currently in service, and increase Houston's economic diversity.
Axiom Space will develop its commercial space station at the Houston Spaceport, a deal that could help spur long-held ambitions for turning the spaceport into a hub of aerospace activity.
Houston-based Axiom Space plans to develop a 14-acre headquarters campus at the spaceport. It will use this campus to train private astronauts and for production of its Axiom Station. The project was announced Tuesday afternoon by Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Ellington Airport became home to the country’s 10th FAA-licensed commercial spaceport in June 2015.
Pictured is a rendering of the commercial space station being built by Axiom Space.
Photo: Axiom Space
Axiom Space is building a commercial space station. The Houston-based company was selected by NASA in January to develop a commercial module that will attach to the International Space Station. This first module is set to launch in 2024.
Through 2028, additional modules will be attached to that initial module to provide areas for housing, research and manufacturing. Ultimately, these modules will create a commercial space station that can be detached from the International Space Station when that government-run platform is retired. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...C_AfternoonRep
Big news here. Good to see aerospace making a comeback. 1000 jobs expected too
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