Houston-based Midway has completed an $18 million expansion for Bluebonnet Nutrition Corp. in the Sugar Land Business Park off South Dairy Ashford Road.
The 128,000-square-foot facility, which was built by Houston-based D.E. Harvey Builders, will serve as Bluebonnet’s new headquarters. It also allows the company to more than triple its workforce to about 300employees, which earn an average salary of $78,000, Bluebonnet said.
Houston-based Powers Brown Architecture designed the facility, which includes 80,000 square feet of warehouse space, 28,000 square feet of manufacturing and 20,000 square feet of office and lab space. Bluebonnet makes and distributes nutritional supplements such as multivitamins, children’s nutrition, food supplements, protein powders and fish oils.
The Sugar Land City Council approved a tax abatement agreement for the project last year.
“We are thrilled to support Bluebonnet Nutrition’s continued growth in Sugar Land and look forward to the exciting technology the new facility will bring to the region,” said Elizabeth Huff, the city’s director of economic development, in a statement. “The Sugar Land Office of Economic Development is committed to supporting the development of our advanced manufacturing, life sciences and industrial sector.”
Besides the new building, Bluebonnet occupies about 100,000 square feet in two other buildings inside the 1,000-acre Sugar Land Business Park. Those buildings maintain manufacturing, storage and office space, Midway’s Vice President of Investment and Development Chris Seckinger told the Houston Business Journal earlier this year.
The new facility adds more capacity in the capsule and tablet unit, with anticipated inventory values at $11 million, the company said.
Bluebonnet picked Midway for the development more than 20 years after the full-service real estate firm built its Sugar Land headquarters in 1998.
Midway engaged Chicago-based JLL to acquire the 7.44-acreproperty for Bluebonnet from Houston-based oil field services and energy technology company Baker Hughes Co. (Nasdaq: BKR), which also owns a building right next to it, for an undisclosed amount. The sale closed in April 2021.
Construction of the new facility finished on schedule, despite supply chain challenges plaguing the industry, thanks to identifying alternative building materials early on, Seckinger said.
Florian Martin
Houston Business Journal
