HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Brookfield Properties is launching a major redo of the 53-story Heritage Plaza, a 1.1 million SF tower at 1111 Bagby in downtown Houston.
This renovation is part of massive undertaking by Brookfield to upgrade its downtown portfolio which includes two multi-building office complexes – Houston Center and Allen Center.
Kirksey Architecture is designing the renovations which will include exterior and lobby upgrades. The work will be complete in January 2021.
The exterior will receive a “reconceptualizing of the arrival experience with new exterior glass curtain wall at the corner of Dallas and Brazos Streets. The plaza will feature refreshed landscaping including new pavers and integrated seating.”
Heritage Plaza was completed in 1987 at the tail-end of a construction surge that began around 1980. (A broader view of Houston’s construction boom of the 1980s is detailed in Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town, a new book by Ralph Bivins.)
Houston’s office inventory of the 1980s is aging and is slipping in its ability to compete against new office towers by Hines and Skanska which have modern-market design and amenities. So Houston landlords recently embarked on an unprecedented quest to renovate their properties. Landlords that fail to make these investments face the specter of falling into Class B status.
A centerpiece for promotional photos of the downtown skyline, Heritage Plaza features a distinctive stepped top which was inspired by Mayan temples. M. Nasr & Partners was the architect. Construction began in 1984, when the Houston office market was awash in space and bulging with gross oversupply.
According to an apocryphal tale from the time, Houston developer Kenneth Schnitzer, who built dozens of office buildings around town was furious that Heritage Plaza was breaking ground and adding to the oversupply. Schnitzer called the project “the single most irresponsible act” in the annals of Houston commercial development.
And indeed, the late 1980s was a bloodbath for Houston real estate, which was stained by widespread vacancy, foreclosures and bankruptcies.
The work is beginning now at Heritage Plaza and it will be complete in January 2021, Brookfield says. The building, a landmark on the western edge of downtown, has 1,106,453 SF of office space and 28,535 SF of retail space.
EOG Resources, a Houston-based energy firm, occupies 350,000 SF in the building..
Additionally, in January 2019, Big Four professional services firm, Deloitte, reaffirmed its commitment to Heritage Plaza by extending its lease after a 12-year tenancy. Under the terms of the new agreement, Deloitte is leasing 204,210 SF of office space on the 39th through 45th floors of Heritage Plaza. Deloitte is slated to embark on interior renovations to their space, to begin this fall with an estimated completion in late 2020.
The Deloitte lease extension was a significant move for Brookfield. It had been widely rumored in the real estate community that Deloitte was taking a close look at the new Hines project – the Texas Tower which is under construction on the former Houston Chronicle site on Texas Avenue.
Earlier this year, Brookfield Properties launched renovation projects at Houston Center and Allen Center, both of which “will further evolve the campuses into vibrant destinations that foster innovation and productivity for current and future tenants,” Brookfield said.
The Houston Center and Allen Center projects have an estimated completion in late 2020. Included in the renovation of Allen Center is the new C. Baldwin Hotel, previously the DoubleTree, which will house an ambitious new restaurant from San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino, new Sloan/Hall store just off the main lobby, and a 1,300-SF Paloma salon.
Then, in the summer another Brookfield building came into play – the Total Plaza, 1201 Louisiana. The building is named after Total, a French energy and chemicals firm. Total Plaza is getting upgrades to the tunnel, street and second floor lobby levels of Total Plaza. Construction, which began in August 2019, is expected to be completed in early 2020.
Oct. 1, 2019 Realty News Report Copyright 2019
Read The New Book by Ralph Bivins, Editor of Realty News Report
Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town – An Extreme Close Up
Available on Amazon http://tiny.cc/4a2g6y
