Town to Boom Town?: Eagle Pass: From Border

In Eagle Pass, Texas, Warehouse development activity is becoming relatively brisk in Eagle Pass, a Texas border town that has a recent history as a chaotic immigrant border-crossing location.

In The new Empire Industrial Park, which has frontage on the border, forming Rio Grande river, already has seven warehouse development land parcels under contract, says commercial real estate broker Enrique Volkmer of Lee & Associates, Houston

The 1,761-acre Empire Industrial Park, where the concrete streets have not yet been completed, has been attracting interest from industrial real estate developers in addition to “end-user” companies that are staking out land positions, Volkmer says. A 136,000-SF speculative warehouse is slated to be completed in the coming months.

Warren Buffett Firm Breaks Ground in Eagle Pass

Volkmer recently handled the sale of 10 acres in the Empire Industrial Park to Pilot Travel Centers LLC, which just started work on a truck stop with diesel fuel and gas to serve traffic heading to and from Mexico. Pilot Travel Centers, which has 750 truck stops in North America, is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the company led by famed investor Warren Buffett. Mr. Buffett has a net worth of $150 billion.

The Transformative Truck Stop

The new truck stop will enhance international trade through Eagle Pass, city officials say. “This is an important project that will spearhead further development and growth in the area,” says Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas. “We thank the owners for their investment and trust in our community.

The new Eagle Pass truck stop, which fronts El Indio Highway, will open this summer.

Far more important to Eagle Pass’s economic trade potential is the expansion of the Camino Real International Bridge over the Rio Grande. A joint construction project, which is in progress by Mexico and the U.S., is expanding the bridge from six lanes to 12 lanes.

The international bridge is about two miles from the Empire Industrial Park where Volkmer is selling land. The industrial park is being developed by a partnership of two Eagle Pass families.

Auto Factories in Northern Mexico

Eagle Pass lies across the border from the town of Piedras Negras, which is close to manufacturing facilities operated by General Motors, Chrysler, and Constellation Brands, a beer, liquor and wine powerhouse. Eagle Pass is about 330 miles west/southwest of Houston.

Eagle Pass, which has a population of 30,000, has great potential to grow as an international port because Laredo, which is 60 miles away, is overcrowded much of the time, Volkmer says.

“Today, Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras is an underutilized port. It’s a new artery between Mexico and the United States. It’s a pressure relief valve from Laredo,” says Volkmer, who expects several million sq ft of warehouse space to be built in Eagle Pass in the next few years.

Following last year’s opening of Camp Eagle, where over a thousand Texas National Guard troops are stationed, the border-crossing chaos has mostly vanished. The peaceful, normalized border situation in Eagle Pass today “is good for business,” Volkmer says.