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Questions Remain for Houston's Cooling Facility
A cooling facility for perishables currently under construction at the Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston could help turn the city into a new hub for imported flowers. Local wholesalers, however, are unsure if the city's ground transportation will be able to support the increased load.
The shell of the 61,000-square-foot facility was finished last week. When all construction is finished local florists and wholesalers could have access to cheaper, fresher product shipped directly through Houston.
"We offer an avenue [alternative to Miami] for growers to ship their stuff to the United States, but we don't all of the sudden expect to clip off 25 percent of what's going into Miami," says Jeremy Garner, senior associate at Trammell Crow Company, the facility's developer. "We are looking to grow this slowly and at a smart pace."
While the facility has not been leased by anyone, "we are in the process of talking to a couple of prospects and have had interest from several South American countries and growers," Garner says. If a grower wants to use the space for storing perishables, then it would establish a relationship with an airline or ground handler. "At the end of the day, we will end up leasing to an airline or ground handler," says Garner.
According to Jan Hall TMF, president of the Allied Florists of Houston, a number of Costa Rican growers already have committed to shipping to the Houston Airport. "It's a definite go for them," she says.
Still, other logistical questions remain. Local florists and wholesalers, for instance, see the lack of refrigerated trucking available in Houston as a problem.
"If Costa Rica is going to be dropping off in Houston, [somebody] needs to figure out how to get [the flowers] to other markets," says Jim Haley of Pike's Peak of Texas, a wholesale florist in Houston. "The Houston market isn't large enough to justify the expenditure."
Renee Carpenter TMFA of Memorial City Florist in Houston agrees. "To me, it's still in the planning stage," she says. "We don't have the transportation in place, and there isn't a person or group set up yet to do it."
Rick Vacar, director of the Houston Airport System, however, insists the transportation problem will work itself out.
"If the product comes in, it will find its way around," he says "[Houston] has the largest international port in the U.S. now -- the system is here for trucking, it's just not related to airport perishables yet."
--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org
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