 U.S.Senator John Little McClellan later arranged for Smith, who boasted the most intimate knowledge of the depot, to travel to Washington D.C. and negotiate "over White House tea" with Lyndon B. Johnson to transfer ownership of the sprawling NAD complex to Johnson's Brown and Root.Brown and Root's Highland Resources would later transform the depot into an industrial park catering primarily to defense contractors who could be enticed by the local eight-mile (13 km) long rocket range, the vast array of underground storage bunkers, highly specialized building infrastructure, low cost of labor and excellent railroad system.