HARLINGEN — A high-profile warehouse on Ed Carey Drive, vacant for three years, has been purchased by U-Haul, a commercial real estate broker said.
Eric Ziehe, a broker for NAI Rio Grande Valley, said the $1.5 million purchase of the old ProBuild lumber warehouse site at 1218 N. Ed Carey Drive has been concluded.
“They looked at about 40 locations in the Valley and this will be their ninth company-owned location in South Texas,” Ziehe said.
The nearly 10-acre site includes a 26,000-square-foot warehouse, a portion of which is climate-controlled. Ziehe said U-Haul intends to add to the climate-controlled space for the self-storage portion of its operation.
Ziehe said the site has several advantages for U-Haul, including a visible presence on one of the busiest streets in Harlingen. Tucked between the Pena Eye Institute and the Hampton Inn and Suites, the site has 400 feet of frontage on Ed Carey Drive that sees about 25,000 vehicles a day pass by.
“They’re also going to do hitch installations there,” Ziehe said.
The site also has room for expansion, and does have the space — with 72,000 square feet of blacktop — for RV and boat storage as well.
The lot stretches nearly 1,100 feet deep, and there is available property in the back of the site if additional land is required, Ziehe said.
U-Haul has a dozen moving and storage sites in the Harlingen area, but none with the size and scope of the former ProBuild warehouse site, which has been on the market since September 2013.
The warehouse was constructed in 1969.
