HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Constructed during the Covid pandemic, with much of its space leased up during the work-from-home era, the 47-story Texas Tower in downtown Houston has reached 99 percent occupancy.
The 1.2 million-SF office building received a big boost toward full occupancy with a new lease by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, a global law firm that will occupy space on two floors, totaling 52,000 SF.
Texas Tower was developed by Houston-based Hines, and Ivanhoé Cambridge, which is the real estate arm of CDPQ.
The office building’s success stands in contrast to prevailing market trends. Houston’s overall downtown office vacancy rate is around 26%.
While older office buildings struggle to retain tenants, new buildings loaded with amenities like outdoor terraces, fitness centers and excellent food options are the winners in leasing competitions. People in the office leasing business call the trend the “Flight to Quality.”
“I think this building is really a testament to the flight to quality,” said John Mooz, Senior Managing Director at Hines. “This is confirmed in the recent McKinsey Quarterly, namely offices of the future require spaces with purpose, connectivity, digital enhancements, and orientation around sustainability. These attributes distinguish Texas Tower from other office properties in the market, driving exceptional leasing outcomes and achievement.”
The quality of the building was evident on March 9, 2019 – the day concrete was poured for its foundation. The Texas Tower is placed on a full city block at a canted angle. This angle situation opens up the building to significant view corridors between downtown’s skyscrapers.
The tower is located on Block 58 – a city block in northern downtown Houston bounded by Texas Avenue and Milam, Prairie and Travis streets.
The Pelli, Clark, Pelli architecture firm designed the building. In generating ideas for the interior layout of the building, architect Fred Clark was asked to make the tower’s lobby similar to a hotel lobby – a hospitality experience, unlike the cold, empty granite found in the lobbies of many office towers.
Hines’ emphasis on amenities and sustainability innovation worked.
Major tenants include Hines, Vinson and Elkins, Clifford Chance, McGuireWoods, DLA Piper, Cheniere Energy, Chicago Title, Charter Title Company, Morgan Stanley, Sable Offshore Corp, Moelis & Company, Sheppard Mullin, and Squarepoint Capital. Two spec suites remain available for lease, leaving only 18,000 SF of rentable space in the building.
Houston office market veteran Tim Relyea of Cushman & Wakefield signed the initial anchor Vinson & Elkins at 212,000 SF before construction began. Michael Anderson of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord on the subsequent leasing. Hines relocated its own headquarters to Texas Towers, taking over 180,000 SF. In the recent Skadden lease Mark O’Donnell of Savills represented the tenant.
Newmark recently arranged a $450 million refinancing of the building. “The refinancing for this award-winning property was particularly notable as it marked the first time in two years that a multi-tenant office tower outside of New York City was financed in the CMBS single-asset, single-borrower market,” said Newmark’s Jonathan Firestone.
The Texas Tower site was once the home of the Houston Chronicle – newsroom, printing presses and all – for many decades until the wrecking ball took her down. The newspaper abandoned downtown and moved to the brutalist Houston Post building on the Southwest Freeway at Loop 610. Hines bought the Block 58 site – with an additional half-block used as the Chronicle garage – in October 2015 for $54 million from Hearst, the parent company of the Chronicle.
March 12, 2025 Realty News Report Copyright 2025
THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT PODCAST
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Danny Rice of Colliers
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Trey Odom of Avera
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Kris Larson of Downtown Houston +
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jim Carman of Howard Hughes Holdings
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jeff Havsy of Moody’s Analytics
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Sam Scott of CommGate
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with John S. Moody, Jr. of Moody Law Group
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Scott Martin of Granite Properties
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Robert Clay of Clay Development
File: Hines New Skyscraper Reaches 99 Percent Occupancy
Photo: Courtesy Hines
Foundation pour photo: By Ralph Bivins, Realty News Report, Copyright 2025