HOUSTON – Two new office buildings will be built in west Houston’s Memorial City project, near the Energy Corridor, for the U.S. headquarters of Air Liquide, the French industrial gas manufacturer.
Air Liquide will be moving its offices from the Galleria area of Houston to two buildings, with a total of 600,000 square feet, that will be developed by Metro National at 9811 and 9807 Katy Freeway (Interstate 10).
“This move marks an exciting new chapter in Air Liquide’s history as our business continues to rapidly grow and evolve,” said Michael Graff, Chairman & CEO, American Air Liquide Holdings, Inc. and Air Liquide Senior Vice President for the Americas. “We are investing in our future, ensuring the right environment, space and resources to support our talented workforce and continue to enable the highest level of innovation and service for our customers.”
The new Air Liquide Center will consist of a 20-story, 452,000 square-foot tower and an adjacent 145,000 square foot building.
Morris Architects is the architect of record for the 20-story tower. Gensler is the architect for the second building and will design Air Liquide’s interiors in both buildings. Work will begin on both buildings immediately, officials said, and the project should be complete in November 2015.
Air Liquide is currently located at 2700 Post Oak Blvd.
West Houston, which includes the famed Energy Corridor, is on fire with activity. Last week, PM Realty Group, announced plans to build a $1 billion development with 2 million SF of office space in the Energy Corridor. Class A occupancy in the Energy Corridor is 99 percent and many new office buildings are under construction.
The Air Liquide Center will be developed in a mature mixed-use development, Memorial City, which is owned and managed by MetroNational.
Memorial City runs along the Interstate 10 corridor, just east of Beltway 8, and contains 7.6 million square-feet of developed real estate across 265 acres. Memorial City the 1.7 million square foot Memorial City Mall; Class A office space, garden and high-rise residential living; hotels and medical facilities.
The MetroNational firm was founded in 1959.
“With the announcement of Air Liquide, four major publicly traded companies (Murphy Oil, Cobalt International Energy, Air Liquide and the Canada-based Nexen energy firm) have made the decision to relocate to Memorial City in the last 24 months, filling 750,000 total square-feet of office space,” said Randy Nerren, Executive Vice President at MetroNational. “We are delighted that Air Liquide has joined the growing roster of international companies that realize all that Memorial City has to offer.”
Doug Elliott of CBRE represented Air Liquide in the transaction.