We also snapped Cresa Houston’s Sue Rogers and Brookfield’s Paul Frazier. Paul says there will be an office building announced Downtown this year, but it will need to be 50% preleased. His firm has a 2.5-acre site where it’s planning on building a 900k SF to 1.1M SF building. It needs rents around $31/SF net, but existing buildings are leasing around that level; he expects the rate to trickle to preleasing soon because of the lack of big blocks available.
In addition to the renderings previously posted - HAIF user lockmat found this one, among others previously seen, an a personal design portfolio website. At the very least, a leasing brochure exists for prospective tenant...
If this gets built it'll be the tallest building to be built in Texas in at least 25 years. The last 700 footer to be built in Texas was actually three of them in 1987 with two in Dallas and one in Houston.
This is very good news. I hope they can pull this one off. Perhaps something with a spire? Or some kind of crown...
I have my fingers crossed for this tower.
Yes. Houston has long needed a tall with a spire. An actual, true spire, not just a tall communications antennae. It's the one thing that is sorely missing from the skyline. I know that won't happen with this particular project, but I really hope it happens soon.
This one has a lot of competition. Brookfield is pitching this at the same time they are pitching a smaller tower to be built over the Allen Center Garage which houses the Metropolitan Racket Club on the roof.
Meanwhile, Hines (recently completed the BG Group 46 story tower on Main St) is marketing a new tower on the empty lot on the corner of Main and Texas St.
Skanska is floating the idea of tearing down the Houston Club Bldg. for a proposed office tower of unknown size (but I imagine it would have to be large in order to be cost effective to demolish a structure).
There's also some speculation that a developer is pitching a mixed use (with some office space) tower on the South block of Market Square.
And now, there are rumors of Chevron building a new tower to add to their growing downtown campus (the old Enron Bldgs). Chevron already owns the lot where the old YMCA used to stand. Latest I heard was the tower would be 50+ stories tall.
It is likely that only 1 or 2 of these will make it out of the ground. My $$$ is on Chevron (they just announced 800 workers coming to downtown from their San Pablo, CA Hdqts.) first and then possibly Hines (proven track record) or Skanska (deep pockets that can do their own financing).
Downtown has a serious pull: It's what got Brookfield local head Paul Frazier into real estate. He worked as mail clerk at Vinson & Elkins the summer before he entered college—intending to become a lawyer like his father—and as he walked the area delivering packages, he was fascinated by the construction boom under way.
Now Paul manages 8.4M SF in the submarket—it's a mailbags to riches story. After graduating from Baylor in 1981, Paul joined The Office Network (an affiliation of companies started by The Horne Co) as a marketer. Two years later, he moved to The Horne Co as an office leasing rep, which has remained his focus. He tells us his two all-time favorite deals were Chevron's lease in 1400 Smith in '06 (it was the largest transaction in the country at the time) and KBR's renewal and expansion Downtown in 2010. The latter was particularly meaningful because KBR planned to build a West Houston campus and his team convinced it to stay Downtown, a major coup for both Brookfield and the submarket.
On his professional bucket list: redeveloping Allen Center and developing Five Allen Center. (That's better than our bucket list which is just: "Meet Cher.") Paul tells us he's never done a significant repositioning of an existing property, so he's looking forward to that process. (Look for more info in a few months.) And Five Allen Center isn't far off; Brookfield plans to build the 1.1M SF 50-story skyscraper on a site it owns. It won't go spec, but based on today's market, Paul imagines he could negotiate a pre-lease in the next year or so and be in the ground in a few years.
“I think you will see us develop our plans a little further for what we are calling, for now, 5 Allen Center,” he said. “It’s on two and a half acres on the western perimeter of downtown. We are contemplating there a 40-story tower with maybe as much as a million square feet.”
Its 35 floors now and I think that it is a good idea that it shrunk. Its has a better and won't look as out of place as it did before due to the height.
Its 35 floors now and I think that it is a good idea that it shrunk. Its has a better and won't look as out of place as it did before due to the height.
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Houston has long needed a tall with a spire. An actual, true spire, not just a tall communications antennae. It's the one thing that is sorely missing from the skyline. I know that won't happen with this particular project, but I really hope it happens soon.
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