HOUSTON – The City of Houston is considering leasing the 45-story Exxon Mobil building in downtown Houston, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
The city has been looking for downtown space for a police and courts facility and Mayor Annise Parker said Wednesday that leasing the 1.2 million square-foot Exxon Mobil building is being discussed, the Chronicle reported.
In 2013, Shorenstein Properties paid about $50 million to acquire the Exxon Mobil building, 800 Bell, for a redevelopment. As part of the deal, Exxon Mobil, agreed to lease back the entire building until 2015, when it will relocate its employees to its new 385-acre corporate campus on the far northern suburbs of Houston, not far from The Woodlands.
Shorenstein has brought on Houston-based Griffin Partners in a joint venture that may redevelop the building. Ziegler Cooper Architects has designed a redevelopment plan that would yield an additional 100,000 square feet of space by enclosing the space to the edge of the horizontal shades that surround the building.
The Exxon Mobil building, located at Bell and Travis, was built in 1962 as the headquarters of Humble Oil & Refining, a predecessor to Exxon Mobil.
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