P&Z OKs Goforth office park that could create 50 jobs

The Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously recommended a zoning change last night that would create a 10-building office/warehouse park on Goforth Road that would include one company its broker said would create 50 jobs.

Although the proposed change directly conflicts with the city’s Comprehensive Plan, the reality is this section of the city parted ways with the Comprehensive Plan a long time ago.

"As you look at this property from the ground this is becoming our defacto industrial park in Kyle," Director of Planning and Community Development Howard J. Koontz told the commissioners in recommending the proposed zoning change on 5.1 acres at 1151 Goforth Road, just east of Dacey. "There’s a race at this point to see if we’re going to have the office that will support the hospital use to the north — is that going to expand out faster than the construction/management/warehouse/assembly use that’s going to start to spread to the north from the south? But along this portion of Goforth Road, this use is wonderfully compatible. They are creating a job center here that will have morning activity, afternoon activity and then be pretty much dormant the rest of the time."

The project is apparently the brainchild of Richard Wood, who not only develops similar properties in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and East Texas, but also heads up a company called Ameristar Screen and Glass, which will occupy, according to Wood’s real estate broker,15,000 square feet, or about a quarter of the total available space in the proposed development.

The broker, Will Melton of Warehouse Properties in Dallas, told the commissioners last night Wood likes to provide between 1,000 and 3,000 square feet of work space to those business owners who "are overlooked at lot — small commercial contractors, air conditioning repairmen, plumbers, electricians — the kind of people that are right now working in their garage. Most owners have overlooked that type of tenant in the past 10 years. There’s no place for them to go."

Melton said the office spaces lease for between $1,000 and $2,000 a month "They are very nice buildings," he said. "They fit the need for what these people have been looking for for a really long time."

Melton said the current plans are to place 10 buildings totaling 60,000 square feet on the property providing space for between 30 to 40 different companies.

Melton said Ameristar provides replacement glass products, such as windows and doors, for apartment complexes. Melton said Wood plans to "employ over 50 people, starting out," at the Goforth facility. "The crew in Dallas is over 75 employees. He has over 350 employees in the company. Pretty much what he does is he brings in the glass and then he will put it into the aluminum frames and then send it back out again. He produces no glass at all on the property. It’s simply assembling and putting it back out again."

Melton said all orders for Ameristar products are placed on line so no customers will be driving to the Goforth Road location. ""He has crews that go out every morning and come back every evening.’"

The broker said Wood stresses landscaping and safety in all his developments. "The buildings that he builds and redoes he outfits with motion sensors, floodlights over and above what anyone else would do. These buildings are so well lit at night I could send my wife out there and have no qualms about it all. The benefit of these projects that we’ve seen in Dallas and East Texas is that it provides lots of taxes for the cities that we move into."

In other action last night, the Commission unanimously:

• Approved a conditional use permit for the proposed three story, 71-room Comfort Suites, to be located behind the Target store, after being told the exterior of the building will be constructed of stone and brick. The developers told me after the meeting they expect the hotel to open by the end of 2016.
• Recommended the City Council rezone an acre of land at 1489 East RR 150 that would permit a woman who currently lives in a manufactured home in San Marcos to move that home to the re-zoned property.
• Changed its schedule to eliminate its fourth Tuesday meeting this month because the date is two days before Thanksgiving, and move it to Thursday, Dec. 3; and scheduled two special meetings, one on Wednesday, Dec. 9 to meet with a Comprehensive Plan consultant, and a public meeting Tuesday, Dec. 8, specifically designed to receive public input on the Comprehensive Plan.