Harris County, Texas Continues its Role as the Nation's Industrial Construction Market Leader

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Harris County, Texas currently ranks as the number one U.S. county for industrial project activity, based on an Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas) survey conducted over the past year, identifying close to 7,000 active projects at industrial process and heavy manufacturing plants in the U.S. Harris County leads all counties in the number of projects under development with 128 major industrial projects in the works, making it the most active county for industrial projects in the country. These projects represent greater than $3.4 billion in potential industrial project spending over the next few years. The active counties list should not be confused with the Top 20 Industrial Project Spending List released earlier this week, which ranks a county's industrial projects by Total Investment Value (TIV).

Click on the image at right to view the entire Top 20 Industrial Project Active Counties in the U.S.

Harris County is home to the fourth largest city in the U.S. - Houston, Texas. One of the main reasons for Houston, Harris County, and surrounding vicinity's long-term economic success lies within its consistently strong industrial construction market. The backbone of this industry is the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel, which is a major petroleum refining and petrochemical hub supporting hundreds of plants. The port is ranked first in the United States in foreign waterborne commerce, second in total tonnage, and sixth in the world. According to Industrialinfo.com's Online Plant Directory, Harris County is home to more than 420 major industrial plants. Tomorrow's major spenders on the Houston Ship Channel include Valero Refining Company, a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) (San Antonio, Texas), with plans for greater than $200 million in plant upgrades, Lyondell-CITGO Refining LP with greater than $200 million in five projects, and Deer Park Refining Company LP, a 50-50 joint venture formed in 1993 between Shell Oil Company and Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) with greater than $75 million in eight separate projects at its Deer Park Refinery (Plant 1000052).

Houston is also known as a Mecca for people in search of world-class medical expertise. This has led to a series of construction related projects at health care and research facilities in the area. Two University of Texas affiliated facilities, both located in Houston, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Health Science center are planning a series of seven projects totaling $519 million.

Houston's downtown area has undergone revitalization in recent years with an overall beautification program and new baseball, basketball, and football stadiums being built. Also, significant infrastructure improvement on Houston's streets and highways show the signs of a city that is growing in leaps and bounds. After completing its first light rail project in time for this year’s Super Bowl, the City of Houston through METRO (Metropolitan Transit Authority) is planning a couple of extension projects (PEC 01009630, 01009504) to its light rail program. The two light rail extension projects exceed $500 million in cost.

For more information on the 128 projects in Harris County contact Industrialinfo.com's Member Center at 1-800-762-3361