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South Gessner Road business corridor. In the Beltway Crossing Complex, Owen said, Ben E. Keith Foods is close to completing its 450,000square-foot facility that will be the company’s base for Gulf Coast distributions of hot and cold food products to restaurants, convenience stores and companies that prepare food. Ben E. Keith will open in June with its current 250 employees and will grow that. “They are and will be the city’s largest employer.” The mayor noted that “Ben E. Keith trucks say ‘Missouri City, Texas’ on the bottom, so thank you.” Then he talked about Twin Star Packaging, the company that packages trays of Frito-Lay products. They have built two more buildings, and American Tire is leasing space also. Fort Bend Brewing Co. is the first craft brewery to open in Missouri City. Their product is sold in grocery stores, restaurants and around town. You can also take a tour of the brewery on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month. The mayor also noted that Twin Star Bakery is cooking up sweet treats in its 276,000square-foot bakery and distribution center. Stream Realty Group, which originally built two buildings in the complex and leased them to Charming Charlie’s and Professional Packaging, recently built two more. American Tire Distributors leased one and Frank’s Supply, an automotive parts distributor leased the other. Stream Realty is looking at buying another 15 acres on which to build two more buildings, Owen said. Bearden Development, which built the office/warehouse buildings on Stafford Road at Pike Road, has announced they will build two new warehouses of about 25,000 square feet each. Trammel Crow, the developer of Lakeview Business Park, also plans to build two new warehouses. One would be about 95,000 square feet and the other 150,000. Owen said Missouri City now has a second Wal-Mart near Fort Bend Parkway and a Dunkin Donuts at Sienna Parkway and Hwy. 6. There is also a new Raising Cane’s at Murphy Road and Hwy. 6 and a second hotel, Hampton Inn, is to open at Colonial Lake Drive and Hwy. 6. “What all of this means for Missouri City is over $500 million worth of new business to the city and over 1,500 new jobs. Companies like Ben E. Keith and Niagara have held employment workshops and seminars here where they’ve hired local people. “We will have a daily workforce that will actually work in the city. When we talk to restaurants about coming into our city they want people all day long, so with a workforce of some 1,500 people we can now talk about how many people we have who are going somewhere else to eat,” the mayor said. Owen also said there will be an ongoing dialogue with the city’s business people every second Thursday of each month. On June 13th he said the group will tour the Port of Houston and on June 28th Houston Community College personnel will give a presentation and on Aug. 15, the new Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre will talk about his “first three months on the job.” The mayor also noted that next year the
Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen will be up for re-election in May of 2014. Houston Business Connections
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