A Tomball-based developer is staking a sizable bet on Houston's tightest industrial niche, unveiling plans for a 457,000-square-foot manufacturing campus in the city's northeast that will come equipped with cranes from the start. The project, called AeroPoint 1960, lands at 5301 FM 1960 Road East, just down the street from George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in a corner of the market where space for heavy manufacturers has grown scarce.
RevKo announced the campus as a two-phase build, according to The Real Deal, with the first phase set to include five manufacturing buildings totaling 202,000 square feet. Each of those five first buildings will come with its own dedicated industrial outside storage yard, built for tenants who need crane-serviced manufacturing space and room to stage materials on-site. JLL is heading up marketing efforts for the project, per the announcement.
The developer's approach is deliberately cautious given the scale of the wager. RevKo's strategy, the outlet reports, is twofold: gamble that Houston-area companies need more crane-serviced space while also spacing out leasing efforts and adding customization options to minimize risk. Notably, the report also found that RevKo and JLL did not specify whether tenants for the first phase were already lined up.
A Second Phase Held in Reserve
AeroPoint 1960's second development phase is slated to add another 255,000 square feet, but unlike the first phase, it is currently being held back for potential build-to-suit and design-build efforts rather than released into the market right away. That staged approach lets RevKo gauge demand before committing the larger tranche of square footage. Jon Sellers, CEO of RevKo's development team, framed the bet around a supply gap in a statement to the same outlet: “We saw an opportunity to bring much-needed manufacturing space to a market where supply remains limited.”
The numbers back up that read of the market. Houston-area manufacturing vacancy sat at just 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2026, according to the same report, a stark contrast with the 7.5 percent vacancy figure for the overall industrial market. A quarterly report from Partners put that overall industrial vacancy rate at 7.5% in the first quarter of 2026, up 10 basis points from the prior quarter and 80 basis points from a year earlier, even as manufacturing space itself stayed tight, with 476,949 square feet of net absorption and an average asking rent of $0.91 per square foot.
Demand Building Across the Region
Other recent deals point to the same undercurrent. The Houston Chronicle reported in May that there remains demand for specialized buildings already equipped with cranes, or with the capacity to accommodate one, as it covered Austin-based PlaceMKR's acquisition of Rankin Yards, a 50-acre advanced manufacturing campus at 1310 Rankin in north Houston. That campus includes more than 17 buildings, 32 cranes and a 40-megawatt power substation, with plans to enclose existing open-air craneways to add roughly 100,000 more square feet; the property was acquired from Wellbore Integrity Solutions, which is staying on as a tenant under terms that were not disclosed.
The Chronicle also cited Greater Houston Partnership figures showing about 30% of new business announcements in Houston last year were tied to manufacturing, underscoring why developers are chasing this corner of the industrial market. Separately, a joint venture of the Adkisson Group and PCCP recently acquired Northwoods Industrial Park, a 2.7-million-square-foot, 64-building campus in northwest Houston reported to be 98% occupied, according to Realty News Report. Stream Realty Partners' Jon Farris told the outlet that tenant demand for crane-served facilities in Houston has never been higher, with no indication of slowing.
The appeal of crane-served buildings isn't new, even if the current squeeze is acute. A Transwestern study cited by WealthManagement.com found crane-served industrial buildings running at 10 percent vacancy or less as the broader economy picked up and automotive sales hit record levels, and Transwestern's Steve Kozarits noted that such buildings typically cost about $100 to $120 per square foot to build, almost double the cost of a traditional industrial facility. A separate 2015 report had found crane-served properties in Houston used primarily by suppliers to oil companies, a reminder of how the tenant base for this kind of space has shifted over the past decade.
On LinkedIn, RevKo's Christian Brown celebrated the rollout, writing that the firm is excited to partner with Bisnow on the announcement of what is now officially known as the AeroPoint 1960 Manufacturing District. Whether that excitement translates into signed leases for the first phase's 202,000 square feet remains to be seen, since neither RevKo nor JLL has said publicly whether any tenants are already committed to the project.
