TMC BioPort: 500-Acre Bio Manufacturing Campus

[Highrise Tower]

Anyone else notice that this may not be located where UT is selling their 307 acres? 

The BioPort campus might actually be located on Buffalo Speedway, in between Holmes Road and W. Airport Blvd.  This would also explain the circular roundabout featured in the concept rendering.  The roundabout is located about halfway to W. Airport on Buffalo Speedway.

Screenshot from the State of Texas Medical Center 2022:

[Moore-to-it]

Drove out there yesterday  to look around... the economic  impact  it going  to have  on the area will be huge... That the five corners  district  the city been trying  to rejuvenate  for years , isn't  it?

[Luminare]

1 hour ago, Highrise Tower said:

Anyone else notice that this may not be located where UT is selling their 307 acres? 

The BioPort campus might actually be located on Buffalo Speedway, in between Holmes Road and W. Airport Blvd.  This would also explain the circular roundabout featured in the concept rendering.  The roundabout is located about halfway to W. Airport on Buffalo Speedway.

Screenshot from the State of Texas Medical Center 2022:

This is actually even better news, because its the really really big lot south of where you think it is. "But wait, there's more!"

[Highrise Tower]

I believe this site is the location of the new TMC BioPort.

[texan]

4 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

Anyone else notice that this may not be located where UT is selling their 307 acres? 

The BioPort campus might actually be located on Buffalo Speedway, in between Holmes Road and W. Airport Blvd.  This would also explain the circular roundabout featured in the concept rendering.  The roundabout is located about halfway to W. Airport on Buffalo Speedway.

Screenshot from the State of Texas Medical Center 2022:

The Domain proper in Austin is 303 acres. 100,000 biotech workers could definitely use a high density, mixed-use development of that size to live, shop, and eat in.

[Houston?]

That area news the development!

[thatguysly]

I drove that recently when 610/288 was awful. I was wondering if it would ever be developed. Great news for that area.

[Moore-to-it]

6 hours ago, thatguysly said:

I drove that recently when 610/288 was awful. I was wondering if it would ever be developed. Great news for that area.

They are building  Apts a few miles up the road along with a few stores... I fully  expect  this development  to draw even more development  interest...those 100,000 people  are going  to need places to stay relatively  close to their jobs....??  We could  be in for a massive explosion of residential  development  in the area 

[thatguysly]

9 minutes ago, Moore-to-it said:

They are building  Apts a few miles up the road along with a few stores... I fully  expect  this development  to draw even more development  interest...those 100,000 people  are going  to need places to stay relatively  close to their jobs....??  We could  be in for a massive explosion of residential  development  in the area 

I saw that. There are also some new(?) houses/townhouses going in down Airport closer to Almeda and then more going in east of 288. Plus a whole lot of new warehouses/distribution centers going in along 288 as well. Just massive development. But that area has need an influx of jobs and development. This should also provide a lot of blue collar jobs which should be locally supported.

[Highrise Tower]

This weekend I drove down Buffalo Speedway to take a photo of all the different For Sale signs that were posted a long the street. Definitely looks like the majority of them were from the same company.  I saw the same phone number on the signs: 832-867-6380.

Bonus: The sign for UT's land when the Kirksey's owned it before UT got involved.

[Highrise Tower]

Texas Medical Center’s future 500-acre BioPort campus a 'game changer,' TMC CEO says

Oct 10, 2022

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2022/10/10/texas-medical-center-tmc-bioport-economic-impact.html

Announced at the recent State of the TMC event, the campus will focus on cell and gene therapy — a method that takes cells out of the body for correction through highly sophisticated biomanufacturing then places them back into the body to treat diseases — as well as manufacturing and distribution for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.

McKeon told the Houston Business Journal talks for this campus began when the pandemic hit. During the height of Covid-19, each member institution of the medical center had to pull their requests together to make one order for personal protection equipment, vaccines and ventilators from Europe and Asia. However, during this time, the orders also were met with a lot of theft, creating additional problems.

“A lot of the focus right now is, 'How do we make sure that Houston has a major distribution area in the event of another pandemic or major environmental event?'” McKeon said. “It's really about national security. A number of events that have taken place over the last two years, three years since the pandemic has made us really see the value of TMC BioPort.”

In all, the BioPort campus is expected to create 100,000 jobs. The new jobs will not just be for people who have earned Ph.D.s — TMC aims to incorporate students right out of high school with an education campus in the middle of BioPort, he said. TMC plans to partner with Texas A&M University, Houston Independent School District and others to bring the education component to fruition.

“You need the minds; we've had them here for years with our 120,000 employees at the medical center,” McKeon said. “You need a place where an industry can work side by side, and that's what Helix Park brings. You need an early-stage incubator, and that's what our Innovation Factory brings. And now, you need biomanufacturing, so when you're developing new drugs and therapies, you want to test those lines locally, close by so you can deliver them to patients.”

TMC BioPort’s campus will be near the intersection of Buffalo Speedway and Holmes Road, west of Wildcat Golf Club and about a mile south of the 610 Loop. It will be constructed in phases. Information about the owners of the land and additional details could not be made available right now.

The master plan for the campus is being done by David Manfredi of Elkus Manfredi Architects, the same Boston-based firm that designed TMC Helix Park. With $100 million invested for infrastructure, McKeon expects to break ground on construction as early as the first quarter of next year. So far, TMC has spent $5 million on preparations, and plans to spend another $5 million in the next six months as part of the due diligence stage.

McKeon emphasized that since the project is in the due diligence stage, anything could happen that could cause TMC to call it off. Although he does not see that happening, McKeon said it is important to keep in mind how early on the project is.

[EllenOlenska]

Some might wonder if we're even playing the same game. 

[Highrise Tower]

Craig Cohen of Houston Public Media broadcasting from the University of Houston had guest Bill McKeon on today's Houston Matters show.  I'm sure the 11-minute interview will be online soon. There might even be local journalists that will create a story about this interview. 

Here is my write-up as I was listening live.  The segments that stood out for me. 
(Verbiage might not be 100% accurate.)

Craig Cohen: Is this then just about creating specific space for existing companies to move into?

Bill McKeon: No, we are actually evolving. These are coming from internal obviously when you see the great developments that are happening at MD Anderson, Baylor College of Medicine, UT, A&M, those are driven demand, that is creating this demand. One of the great opportunities is for us to have the Work Force Training Center right in the heart of the BioPort. This will create 100,000 new jobs for Houston. That's a $54 billion economic impact for this BioPort alone. 

CC: Do you have a time line for all of this to happen?

BM:  We have been in the due diligence phase for a well over a year-and-a-half now. When you are talking about such a large amount of land you have to do a tremendous amount of work to study the land. In Texas, it's not surprising there is oil wells through out, there's energy lines.  You have to be very detailed in your diligence phase, because you're really not just building a place to build a building, you are building a place to build 50 factories.  It has been under way for a year, to a year-and-a-half already. We have 5 or 6 customers already looking to move into the area. We think it will be activated from a time line of as early next year, early 2023. 

CC: I hear 50 new factories and a couple of thoughts come to mind.  One of course is the potential impact to the air quality. But the other one, which is a very much concern here in Houston, is what would all of that development mean for how water flows in the Texas Medical Center?

BM: Water detention. What's great about modern architecture now, when you design sports fields that can be used as water detention centers should there be terrible rain. That can also be activated and used for soccer fields for the campus.  In respect to Bio Manufacturing, Bio Manufacturing isn't like most manufacturing where you see smoke coming out of stacks. This is highly advanced technical equipment that is actually creating cell lines. So you're not burning, and creating anything negative for the environment. As a matter of fact, for an economic standpoint, we are building centralized distribution so that we are not buying 50 different warehouses we are actually centralizing making it less expensive and more efficient in the process. 

CC: Where does most of the Medical Manufacturing occur today? 

BM: Number 1 place is Europe, then number 2 is Boston, and up and coming will be Houston.  In the Carolina's they start educational training in the 5th grade.  They can come right out of high school and go into a $160,000, $170,000 dollar job. Part of our Work Force Training Center, we will be working with all of our schools to make sure we start the training very early on to create these opportunities to serve these great young men and women coming out of High School. 

 

[ChannelTwoNews]

20 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

Craig Cohen of Houston Public Media broadcasting from the University of Houston had guest Bill McKeon on today's Houston Matters show.  I'm sure the 11-minute interview will be online soon. There might even be local journalists that will create a story about this interview. 

Here is my write-up as I was listening live.  The segments that stood out for me. 
(Verbiage might not be 100% accurate.)

Craig Cohen: Is this then just about creating specific space for existing companies to move into?

Bill McKeon: No, we are actually evolving. These are coming from internal obviously when you see the great developments that are happening at MD Anderson, Baylor College of Medicine, UT, A&M, those are driven demand, that is creating this demand. One of the great opportunities is for us to have the Work Force Training Center right in the heart of the BioPort. This will create 100,000 new jobs for Houston. That's a $54 billion economic impact for this BioPort alone. 

CC: Do you have a time line for all of this to happen?

BM:  We have been in the due diligence phase for a well over a year-and-a-half now. When you are talking about such a large amount of land you have to do a tremendous amount of work to study the land. In Texas, it's not surprising there is oil wells through out, there's energy lines.  You have to be very detailed in your diligence phase, because you're really not just building a place to build a building, you are building a place to build 50 factories.  It has been under way for a year, to a year-and-a-half already. We have 5 or 6 customers already looking to move into the area. We think it will be activated from a time line of as early next year, early 2023. 

CC: I hear 50 new factories and a couple of thoughts come to mind.  One of course is the potential impact to the air quality. But the other one, which is a very much concern here in Houston, is what would all of that development mean for how water flows in the Texas Medical Center?

BM: Water detention. What's great about modern architecture now, when you design sports fields that can be used as water detention centers should there be terrible rain. That can also be activated and used for soccer fields for the campus.  In respect to Bio Manufacturing, Bio Manufacturing isn't like most manufacturing where you see smoke coming out of stacks. This is highly advanced technical equipment that is actually creating cell lines. So you're not burning, and creating anything negative for the environment. As a matter of fact, for an economic standpoint, we are building centralized distribution so that we are not buying 50 different warehouses we are actually centralizing making it less expensive and more efficient in the process. 

CC: Where does most of the Medical Manufacturing occur today? 

BM: Number 1 place is Europe, then number 2 is Boston, and up and coming will be Houston.  In the Carolina's they start educational training in the 5th grade.  They can come right out of high school and go into a $160,000, $170,000 dollar job. Part of our Work Force Training Center, we will be working with all of our schools to make sure we start the training very early on to create these opportunities to serve these great young men and women coming out of High School. 

 

No transcript or seperate story yet but the audio of the show is available now.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/houston-matters/2022/10/17/434796/daca-ruling-and-the-astros-head-back-the-alcs-oct-17-2022/

[Highrise Tower]

Interesting. This large parcel of land for sale that's located on Holmes road near Buffalo Speedway has the same contact phone number listed as TMC's new BioPort Campus. The same phone number is 832-867-6380.

This falls outside of the BioPort Campus, no? I wonder if this is additional land for some reason?

I also noticed when you click the original Loopnet link, it does not take you to the 700 Holmes Road listing, but to a listing for 9 parcel lots for a total of 115-acres.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/700-Holmes-Rd-Houston-TX/8791075/

The 113-Acres for sale at 700 Holmes Road, seemed to have been split up into 9 parcels and then recreated as a separate Looopnet link. See below.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/Holmes-Rd-and-Buffalo-Speedway-Houston-TX/8791075/

Google Maps is so advanced that you can see remembrance of an old road layout. Highlighted the road path in grey.  Labeled as Concrete Construction of Houston, but it's a storage facility for large 18-wheeler trucks.

You can see the known TMC BioPort Campus land on the bottom right.  This maybe included.

[Highrise Tower]

Pathways are being created in several parts a long Buffalo Speedway.

[Highrise Tower]

Orange and pink flags appeared this week. Let's go!!

[Highrise Tower]

One of the parcels was mowed this week. Looks much better!

[Highrise Tower]

A line of new flags appeared!! Upon closer inspection they are for MCI Fiber Optic Cable.

[Highrise Tower]

On 7/15/2022 at 8:53 PM, Highrise Tower said:

Noticed this the other day. I wonder if it's Crown Castle's?

Edit: No, it clearly states "Site Concepts, Inc." out of Palm City, Florida.

A plan review permit for a new cell tower was pulled the other day:

 

[Highrise Tower]

I need to report localized street flooding on a certain part of Buffalo Speedway. I believe this is only a blockage someplace?  On all of Buffalo Speedway, there was only one small section that could not contain the heavy rains this past weekend.

Hopefully it's fixed in the master plan.  Or hopefully, the blockage is removed soon.

[Highrise Tower]

I need to report some illegal dumping along Buffalo Speedway. Can someone please handle this? Message me if needed.

[Highrise Tower]

City of Houston Public Works on site!

 

 

[Highrise Tower]

What's going on with the light poles? There are a total of 3 down and uprooted. One looks like a vehicle accident, but the others were taken down by the city? I believe this is the cause of the light outage a long Buffalo Speedway and Willowbend?

Can someone please fix these poles?

[jmitch94]

Drunk drivers man. 

[Highrise Tower]

I was browsing a Houston technology & media website and came across an ad for TMC's Ecosystem including the TMC BioPort.  Very cool! Hopefully the ad will help spread the word about this game-changing development.

TMC|Texas Medical Center

The Most Comprehensive Life Science Ecosystem

TMC|Medical Campus
TMC|Innovation Factory
TMC|Helix Park
TMC|BioPort

tmc.edu's website was redesigned as well. Awaiting an official TMC BioPort tab/section.

https://www.tmc.edu/

[Highrise Tower]

Something is going on across the bridge on Buffalo Speedway.  I see a lot of company flags for which they have underground transmission lines.  Marking them because there is about to be digging in the area?

AT&T orange flag:

CenterPoint Energy electric flag:

CenterPoint Energy gas flag:

Comcast CATV flag:

[Highrise Tower]

Looks like I found the old Loopnet listing. 

Holmes and Buffalo Speedway Land · Land For Sale · 400.00 AC

Property Taxes:

Parcel Number- 0420370000066 

Land Assessment- $209,875

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/Holmes-Rd-Buffalo-Speedway-Houston-TX/17286870/

[Highrise Tower]

A few updates from around TMC's website. 

tmc.edu now has a dedicated section for BioPort!!

https://www.tmc.edu/bioport/

The new TMC Helix Park Retail Book Brochure includes a cool campus ecosystem overview:

https://www.tmc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/TMC-HelixPark-Retail-Deck_Online_022023.pdf

This map is on texasmedicalcenter.com's website:

https://texasmedicalcenter.com/

[Highrise Tower]

On 7/8/2022 at 10:07 PM, Highrise Tower said:

I've been looking at this Loopnet listing for a month. That area has so much potential!  It's mostly contaminated forest land.  These parcels are also located across the 307-Acre UT Research Campus Proposal.

I know there was once a proposal, about 13 years ago, that covered a lot of the Buffalo Speedway forest land  Obviously that was never realized. Here's the Loopnet listing I saw.  Too much information to post in the thread.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/Holmes-Rd-and-Buffalo-Speedway-Houston-TX/8791075/

Across Holmes Road from the 320-acre University of Texas purchase, the 115 acres is a Texas Medical Center auxiliary property.

Mostly wooded, the property consists of nine parcels which adjoin the Wildcat Golf Course, of the Houston Texans, the University of Houston Cougars and the Houston Rockets, with frontage on the extension of Buffalo Speedway, one of the most prominent north-south major thoroughfares in Houston and the south side of Holmes Road, a prominent east-west thoroughfare now being 4-laned with curb and gutter and center esplanade over 42" to 48"sewer.

The Loopnet listing was removed!! This listing is not currently being advertised on LoopNet.com.

A little history regarding this Loopnet listing:

The Loopnet listing went Under Contract.  Then a few months later the "Under Contract" was removed from the page. I assumed the deal fell through and the property was no longer under contract. A few months pass by and now the listing has been removed!

I believe some of these parcels are crucial for the completion of the 500-acres that the Texas Medical Center wants. Fingers crossed this means TMC just bought the combined 115-acres.

My knowledge:  Someone, or an entity, is selling 400-acres long Buffalo Speedway.  You then add the above 115-acres and you get a combined 515 acres.  I believe McKeon said something a long the lines of "A 500+ acre campus".  The size might be slightly above the 500-acre mark.

Let's go!!

Edit: Looks like the company failed to renew their monthly subscription. The Loopnet listing was removed per the lack of membership.