Not to be confused with Northpoint Crossing (which, as of this writing, is to undergo a major rewrite), Northpoint Business Park at 2870 North Harvey Mitchell Parkway's history began in May 1979 when NL Industries announced the construction of a plant for its Atlas Bradford pipe and tube division1. The 137-acre site had lofty plans with its initial operations being able to thread 22,000 tons of tubing annually, with 100,000 tons anticipated by 1984. It opened in 1980 and was had a brief period of success with 400 employees, a downturn in oil prices forced layoffs and by September 1982 only had 115 employees, when it NL Industries announced it would close for "12-18 months" until the oil price recovered, retaining 10 employees to serve as "caretakers" for the mothballed facility. Ultimately, these employees were let go as NL Industries abandoned the plant entirely and put it up for sale in 1987.
In 1994, local developer Kenneth Neatherlin's company, Neatherlin Commercial Group, purchased the plant from Dresser Industries2 but requested the city to help pay for cleanup costs. I'm not sure if Northpoint ever offered up the old railroad spur as part of its features. It looked disconnected even in 1995.
It's more or less been that way since. When I was younger, there was something in suite 300 (the building and side closest to the entrance, at least from what I can tell, I believe U.S. Well Services takes up residence there now) that I vaguely remember in the parking lot having a bunch of things that I could best describe as nautical flags but it's been too long. I can't find a good PDF layout of the property, this (archived from here) is perhaps the best example. I'm not sure if it had an address in the Atlas Bradford days, but it is 2870 North Harvey Mitchell Parkway now. There's tenants like Groundforce Building Systems in suite 200 and Plygem New Alenco Extrusions in suite 400, but none of these are particularly noteworthy, there's nothing truly big and memorable that took up residence here. The only real big change was selling part of the lot so Sleep Inn could build a hotel that faces the highway.
1. NL Industries no longer owns Atlas Bradford, and it has gone under a variety of other owners since. It was spun off in 1989 as part of Baroid Corporation (the oil and gas side of NL Industries), which in turn sold it to Energy Ventures in 1992, incorporating it into their Grant TFW (later Grant Prideco) division. In 2000, Energy Ventures (by this time known as Weatherford International) spun off Grant Prideco as an independent company. In 2008, most of Grant Prideco's Tubular Technologies and Services division (except for XL Systems, which they kept) was sold to Vallourec out of France.
2. Baroid was spun off from NL Industries with Atlas Bradford (see footnote 1) but when Baroid sold Atlas Bradford to Energy Ventures, they retained the site. Baroid was sold to Dresser Industries in December 1993, and the official deed to the current ownership is from "BAROID MANAGEMENT".
Editor's Note: So, the next "guaranteed" post is on September 21st, but don't go away. Check out Pyne Hall Apartments on The Houston Files, an updated version of what was on Carbon-izer until just a week or so ago. McDonald's & Blockbuster received its first update in over a decade. As I mentioned in the main article, pay attention to the Northpoint Crossing article. While it got a small update to account for some defunct tenants, it's going to get a major update soon.
