HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Quantum Energy Partners leased 32,000-SF at the top of the 35-story downtown office tower under construction by Skanska USA Commercial Development.
The new building, slated for completion in 2019, is now 33 percent leased. Bank of America, with more than 210,000-SF, is the anchor tenant and the namesake of the new tower.
The 754,000-SF Skanska building is rising on the Houston skyline at a time while the city’s office market is going through a rough patch. Downtown has a Class A availability rate of 20.2 percent and more than 2 million SF of sublease space is on the market, according to CBRE.
Quantum Energy will be moving from 5 Houston Center, a Crescent-built tower a few blocks away. Trey Strake and Chris Oliver of Cushman & Wakefield represented Quantum Energy, which expects to relocate in November 2019.
Warren Savery, Kristen Rabel and Rima Soroka of CBRE represented Skanska.
“The top floor of Capitol Tower will provide Quantum with a prestigious office space that is highly energy efficient and has unparalleled views of downtown Houston,” said Matt Damborsky, executive vice president of Skanska.
The Skanska tower, now called Capitol Tower, will be located on a block bounded by Capitol, Rusk, Milam and Travis streets. The new building will have 754,000 SF of office space and 26,000 SF of retail. The building, 800 Capitol St., will have extensive retail and restaurant space in the tunnel level.
The Skanska tower is being built on the site of the old Houston Club building, which Skanska imploded in 2014. The foundation for the building was poured in August 2015.
The new building will be renamed for Bank of America when the tower is completed, but the final moniker has not been announced. The bank will be moving out of the 56-story Bank of America Center, a Hines building completed in 1983.
Skanska, part of a large Stockholm-based construction and development organization, has financed projects internally, enabling the company to proceed while lesser firm would be waiting on bank financing.
Skanska also developed the West Memorial Place, a two-building office development in the Energy Corridor. According to reports, following Hurricane Harvey, as much as three feet of water entered the Memorial buildings, located near Addicks Reservoir and Terry Hershey Park.