HOUSTON – The Hess Tower in downtown Houston was a recipient of the International TOBY (The Outstanding Building of the Year) Award at the 2017 Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International Conference & Expo in Nashville, Tenn.
CBRE manages the Hess Tower, which won in the BOMA “Corporate Facility” category.
The 29-story office building, 1501 McKinney, is located adjacent to Discovery Green park. During construction, the building was called Discovery Tower, until Hess signed a lease for the entire building in 2009.
Trammell Crow Co. and Principal Real Estate Investors developed the 845,000-SF building, completed in 2010.
The Hess Tower is owned by H&R REIT, which bought the building in 2011 for more than $500 per SF, a record price for Houston properties at the time.
The Hess building, designed by Gensler, is the first building in Houston’s CBD to achieve LEED Platinum certification as in its Core & Shell category.
“This award is the most prestigious honor that a property management team can receive and is a true testament of the operational excellence that the CBRE team at Hess Tower has been demonstrating for many years, “ says Janet Shipley, Associate Director for Asset Services, CBRE.
The TOBY Awards are the commercial real estate industry’s highest recognition honoring excellence in commercial building management and operations in specific categories of building size or type. To win an International TOBY Award, a property first must win both local and regional competitions. Judging is based on community impact, tenant and employee relations programs, energy management systems, accessibility, emergency evacuation procedures, building personnel training programs and overall quality indicators. A team of expert industry professionals also conducted comprehensive building inspections.
“At CBRE, we pride ourselves in upholding our company’s values while also creating advantage for clients by reducing operational costs, streamlining operations, maximizing tenant retention and enriching the tenant experience for each and every building,” said Mark Nicholson, Senior Managing Director of Asset Services, CBRE. “We are honored to see our team’s efforts recognized by BOMA with this prestigious award.”