HINES TEES UP ANOTHER OFFERING

Hines Tees Up Another Houston Offering

The Houston office investment sales market is getting impossibly crowded. Local player Hines is shopping another Houston office property, the 542,458-square-foot office tower at 919 Milam St. downtown that it owns through a venture with California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS). The venture, known as National Office Partners LP, tapped Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP to market the property for sale. HFF is also shopping the 1.2 million-square-foot Bank of America Center at 700 Louisiana St. for Hines. The Hines/CalPERS venture paid $42.6 million, or around $78.49 per square foot, to acquire the property at 919 Milam in 2005. This time, it should fetch more than double that amount. The property reportedly could trade for about $200 per square foot, which would put a sale price in the neighborhood of roughly $108 million. HFF did not immediately return calls for comment. The property is currently 77.9% leased with rents averaging $17 per square foot, according to CoStar Group information. The building, which occupies a full city block bounded by Travis, Walker, Milam and McKinney streets, was developed in 1956 and renovated in 2006. It has a new four-level parking garage for 300 cars at the base. The offering will face a lot of competition. In addition to the Bank of America Center -- which is expected to fetch more than $400 million -- there are at least a dozen office properties on the market in Houston right now. Local players chalk the supercharged sales activity up to several factors, from the city's strong ties with the oil industry, a recent investor attraction, to the unprecedented amount of capital looking for real estate investments in secondary markets. For more information see : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net or
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