Monday, January 5, 2009

HBJ Article tells the story NOW!!!

THEN
Date: March 14, 2008
Headline: ‘Downtown office towers jump off starting block in tandem’
THE STORY
Ground-breaking events were held in the spring for three new Class A office buildings proposed for downtown Houston.
All of the events were held within one week by three separate developers. The trio were among a handful of real estate companies that had been mulling over new downtown projects for a year in an effort to meet demand for office space.
Crescent Real Estate Equities LLC, Hines Interests LP and Trammell Crow Co. all announced plans to develop buildings, even though none of them as yet had any tenants.
The three buildings shared another similarity in that the developers all hoped they could obtain LEED Gold certification as sustainable green buildings.
In that busy week for real estate, Dallas-based Trammell Crow and financial partner Principal Real Estate Investors on Feb. 29 started construction of Discovery Tower — a 30-story, 871,000-square-foot office building at 1501 McKinney St. by Discovery Green park.
Houston-based Hines began construction three days later on a 1 million-square-foot office at 811 Main called MainPlace.
The Hines CalPERS Green Development Fund, a Hines venture with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, is the developer of the 46-story building.
And Crescent held a VIP ground-breaking event on March 6 to launch the proposed 585,000-square-foot 6 Houston Center, which was set to begin construction by May in the block bounded by Rusk, Walker, Caroline and San Jacinto.
NOW
Crescent’s building never got off the ground.
Fort Worth-based Crescent was bought by Morgan Stanley Real Estate in a deal that closed in August — a transaction that changed it from a public company to a private one.
Information about Crescent’s deals became more difficult to obtain after the company was taken private. A Crescent representative was unavailable for comment on the status of 6 Houston Center.
Although Crescent’s building didn’t materialize, the other two projects are moving forward as planned.
Hines announced in May that KPMG LLP would become the building’s first tenant. The company will occupy nearly 109,000 square feet on the top four floors of MainPlace when the new tower is finished in 2011.
KPMG decided to relocate from downtown’s Bank of America Center building, where it now offices, in order to attract future employees with a showcase location.
Trammell Crow has not yet announced a tenant for the 30-story Discovery Tower, but real estate insiders predict that the space will be filled.
New York-based Hess Corp. has been mentioned as a likely candidate for the building.
The energy firm is said to be in the market for 800,000 square feet of space in a downtown building where it would be the sole tenant.
Discovery Tower, which will be finished around the fourth quarter of 2011, is likely to be the only office space that will fill the bill.
Jennifer Dawson HBJ

For more information see: www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com or www.houston realtyadvisors.net
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