By Ralph Bivins
HOUSTON — Transwestern has been retained by Shorenstein Properties to lease the ExxonMobil building at 800 Bell, a 1.2 million-sf office tower in downtown Houston.
A major renovation is being planned by Shorenstein, which paid $50 million to buy the building a few months ago. There has been speculation that Shorenstein will attempt to connect the building to Houston’s downtown tunnel system, which is de riguer for Class A buildings in today’s office market.
The property includes a 45-story office tower and a seven-story parking garage covering two city blocks on the corner of Travis and Bell Streets.
800 Bell was built in 1962 as the headquarters of Humble Oil & Refining Co., a predecessor to ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil will vacate the building in 2015, giving Shorenstein the opportunity to deliver significant improvements via an extensive redevelopment, details of which will be released soon, Transwestern said.
ExxonMobil will be moving to its huge 3.25 million sf corporate campus, which is being built now on 400 acres north of Houston, near The Woodlands.
With the high-quality office space to be newly constructed, 800 Bell offers an exciting opportunity in the CBD with its unique corporate identity on the Houston skyline and one of the largest blocks of contiguous space offered in Houston in more than 30 years.
“Shorenstein has a reputation for delivering successful signature redevelopment projects, such as Market Square in San Francisco, which includes the headquarters of Twitter, Yammer and One Kings Lane. We are excited to see what Shorenstein has in store for 800 Bell and downtown Houston,” said Transwestern’s Eric Anderson, executive vice president.
Anderson, David Baker, executive vice president, and Paul Wittorf, vice president, will market and lease the property.