On March 7 this story was updated to include that the Brookshire City Council had also approved a tax abatement deal with Tesla in a vote they took on the evening of March 6.
WALLER COUNTY, Texas (Covering Katy News) — A tax abatement agreement that will bring Tesla and approximately 1,500 jobs to the Empire West industrial park in Brookshire was approved by the Waller County Commissioners Court on Wednesday, March 5. On Thursday night the Brookshire City Council also approved a tax abatement deal for Tesla.
The Empire West industrial park is located on Woods Road between Highway 90 and Interstate 10, a short distance from Katy.
Tesla will operate a new Megapack battery storage manufacturing facility at a 1 million-square-foot building, which was initially constructed with no tenant on speculation that it would attract jobs and economic development.
Stream Realty built the so-called "spec" building at its Empire West business park. Stream will also oversee the construction of a new 600,000-square-foot distribution facility with some manufacturing capabilities. When completed, Tesla will occupy both buildings.
Tesla Megapacks are used to store electricity for large renewable energy projects which are not a consistent producer of power. Solar does not produce energy at night when it's dark, and wind energy does not produce electricity when the wind isn't blowing and the turbines aren't spinning. Tesla's Megapacks store power for use during times when renewable energy sources aren't generating electricity.
"I want to thank Tesla for investing in Waller County and Brookshire," said Vince Yokom, the Waller County Economic Development Partnership executive director. "This will be a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for their Megapack product. It is a powerful battery unit that provides energy storage and support to help stabilize the grid and prevent outages."
The deal has been developing for months but Tesla has held the lease on the building since October 2021 where third-party logistics company, DB Schenker, handled Tesla parts. Schenker will be moving out, and Tesla will be moving into that building which will be used to manufacture Tesla's Megapacks.
This expansion follows Tesla's headquarters relocation from California to Texas in December 2021, after opening its 4 million-plus-square-foot Gigafactory in Austin.
"This is another excellent example of our spec building program, which has been used by Waller County since 2010 to attract new investment to the area," Yokom said. "Brookshire also implemented a similar program for Stream Realty to expand Empire West."
Under the proposed agreement, Tesla will receive tax abatements from Waller County based on property improvements. The deal includes $44 million in facility improvements and $150 million in Tesla manufacturing equipment that Tesla will install. The next phase involves a new $31 million distribution facility with about $2 million in Tesla distribution equipment and building upgrades.
"This was a great partnership effort between Waller County and the city of Brookshire. I want to thank Joe Esch, who represented Brookshire and currently oversees the city's economic development program. He was instrumental in making the deal a success," Yokom said.