Nationwide Steel, Houston

Background
The Nationwide Steel company (not to be confused with the Nationwide Steel, Inc. that is currently still in business as of late 2010), formerly located at 6200 Kansas near downtown Houston, was a large steel fabricating facility that covered nearly 25 acres. The company specialized in plate fastening, shearing, flame cutting, welding, and storage.

Demise
The steel industry has endured many ups and downs over the decades due to strikes, overseas competition, clashes with environmental, legal, and/or political groups, etc., which undoubtedly played a part in shutting down this branch of Nationwide Steel in the 1980s (along with the city of Houston undergoing their own periods of recessions and all as well). The area of land and its buildings went unused for two decades as a result.

Urban exploration
Nationwide Steel was easily accessible for several reasons (even despite the usual wire-link fence and “no trespassing” signs), one being just for its large size, having at least 10 known buildings and taking up the area, lengthwise, of several football fields (with the entire area encompassing 24.8 acres), as it had many accessible places (part of a fence not being secured to the ground and being easily crawled underneath) along that strip. There was also no (or very little) security personnel patrolling the area during 1995-2001, if not ever. The city of Houston also has no zoning, which, instead of being in a security-enforced business district, was right in the middle of a residential neighborhood with, again, little or no neighborhood patrol on a consistent basis.

Current condition
The realtor firm of Cushman and Wakefield purchased the property area and began tearing down Nationwide Steel’s buildings in 2001. It is currently unknown what happened with the area in between 2001 - 2010, although a report by Ska Consulting, L. P. was released dated August, 2010, in regards to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, with the site being listed for its soil and groundwater contamination by metals, chlorinated solvents, TPH, and PCBs. Belt Line Partners, L. P. was the client for the area, and the voluntary cleanup project is listed as to being completed. It is unknown if the area will become Belt Line Partners’, if it is to be sold to another company, or what will become of the area.

Links

 * Darrylb500's YouTube video presentation of the site
 * Ska Consulting report