HOUSTON – (By Ralph Bivins, Realty News Report) -The 24-story downtown tower that was the original home to Bank of the Southwest has been sold, opening the door for converting it from office to residential space.
The 542,919-SF building, 919 Milam, is located on a block bounded by Travis, Walker, McKinney and Milam – a block off of Main Street and about six blocks from Discovery Green.
The building, designed by architect Kenneth Franzheim, was completed in 1956, sporting an all-aluminum curtain-wall exterior in a mid-century design.
The buyer is a believed to be a Florida real estate entity that could be examining the option of converting the building to apartments.
Downtown’s new Class AA office buildings and buildings with extensive upgrades have been outperforming older office buildings in recent years.
The 919 Milam building is about 20% occupied with the Coronado Club dining and social venue as the key tenant. With the current conditions of the office market, improving the office space in the 919 Milam building might not pencil in a way that makes sense.
Another developer from the Florida Gulf Coast, a group led by Eddie DeBartolo, the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers, recently completed an office-to-resi conversion in Downtown Houston. DeBartolo’s firm converted the 600 Jefferson office tower into a 372-unit apartment building called Elev8.
Will the new owner of 919 Milam proceed with a residential conversion?
Just because it’s purchased there’s no guarantee that redevelopment will follow.
Consider the 45-story former headquarters of Humble Oil, a predecessor to Exxon. The tower was sold to a New York developer in January 2023. A redevelopment of the 1.2 million-SF building, located at 800 Bell, could have supercharged downtown revitalization. But so far, there’s been little progress and very few positive headlines.
The seller of 919 Milam was a real estate entity affiliated with UBS. Following the 2023 collapse of the Credit Suisse financial institution, the Swiss government organized the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS.
Jeff Hollinden and Kevin McConn of JLL Capital Markets have been marketing the building for UBS.
Before it was called 919 Milam, the building had a number of names through the years, including 909 Travis, Bank One Center, and the Bank of the Southwest Building.
The building has traded hands many times in its 70 years of existence. Former owners include Hines, M-M Properties, Transwestern, and a partnership of Lincoln Property Co. and Goldman Sachs.
June 15, 2026, Realty News Report Copyright 2026
Photo credit: Realty News Report, Copyright 2026
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File: Downtown Tower Sold for Possible Residential Conversion