Dive Brief:
- Skanska Commercial Development USA will develop and build a new $151 million, 35-story, mixed-use office tower in Houston, with Bank of America as its anchor tenant, according to Commercial Property Executive. The tower is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2019.
- BOA will utilize approximately 215,000 square feet of the Gensler-designed building's 780,000 total square footage, and will receive naming rights as part of the deal, according to the Houston Chronicle. The building — which will also include 26,000 square feet of retail space and a parking garage — will offer tenants a fitness center, a green roof, a tele-connected lobby and easy access to a nearby light-rail system.
- The tower is the first building in Houston to earn LEED v4 Platinum pre-certification. and is designed to use only 75% of the energy consumed by its less-efficient counterparts. Aside from the green roof, some of its other sustainable features include high-performance glass and a rain harvesting system.
Dive Insight:
Downtown Houston has an office vacancy rate of nearly 17% — a 22-year high. A decline in the energy sector has left some Houston offices vacant and mixed-use developments shelved. In June of last year, PM Realty Group put its Republican Square project, planned for Houston's Energy Corridor, on hold indefinitely due to a fall in oil prices.
However, people continue to pour into Houston and other Texas cities. A recent report from the American City Business Journals found that Houston led a group of 11 major U.S. metros that are each adding more than 1,000 people per week. In addition, Texas came in second in terms of states with the most commercial real estate development last year, according to NAIOP.
Office construction nationwide increased 28.7% to almost $37 billion from 2015 to 2016. ConstructConnect reported last month that office construction grew 106.4% between January and February, translating to healthy demand for office space in major markets. This includes New York City, which has seen significant office construction with projects such as the $3 billion One Vanderbilt high-rise and the massive Hudson Yards development.