Texas Medical Center to Buy Nabisco Plant

Texas Medical Center has entered into an agreement to purchase the closed Nabisco plant at Old Spanish Trail and Almeda. The 21-acre site includes the plant where many of Nabisco's famous cookies were produced. The plant opened in 1949 and was partially renovated in 1995. The Nabisco company will dismantle and move the bakery and support equipment to other sites in the U.S.

The deal is set to close at the end of August, when the dismantling is scheduled to be complete.

The large building is approximately 600,000 square feet in size. Viewing the building from the inside, one can imagine its attractiveness once it is built out. Renovations will begin - once the agreement to purchase has been finalized - to turn the facility into one that could be used for office space, record storage, research space, classrooms and telecommunications.

The building will no doubt become a kind of support center for the Texas Medical Center institutions. Large skylights make for good lighting, especially in the central part of the plant where offices could be located. The east end of the building (about 125,000 square feet) - which served as a delivery entry for flour, sugar and other products - would be ideal for record or data storage as well as telecommunications, according to Andy Icken, TMC vice president of finance. The west end of the building (about 150,000 square feet) - which served as the distribution point - would be ideal as a warehouse or a central distribution point for TMC institutions. "The utility structures are strong and have been well maintained," says Icken. "Because of the food preparation standards, the building is in very good shape," says Icken.

By utilizing the large outdoor delivery areas, there could be as many as 800 parking spaces on the site. "There will continue to be a need for parking close to the Texas Medical Center campus," says Mary Schiflett, vice president for public affairs, Texas Medical Center. "Employees who do not have to leave their jobs during the day will be asked to park off-campus, so the patients and visitors will have access to parking near their destinations."

The purchase of the Nabisco site follows last year's study by TMC and the planning and architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago which looked at the current projects and future needs of the Texas Medical Center, a campus that has significantly expanded from its original 135 acres to its current nearly 700 acres.

- ROGER WIDMEYER

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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