The Ralph Bivins Project: Podcast Guest Bob Parsley

HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Bob Parsley, chairman of Colliers Houston – one of the biggest commercial real estate organizations in the city – calls Houston “the center of the universe for the energy world.”

A perennial top producer at Colliers, the native Houstonian has more than four decades of commercial real estate experience and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Parsley shared insights on what’s driving the Houston real estate market as a recent guest on The Ralph Bivins Project podcast. Edited excerpts follow.

Ralph Bivins: Here we are at the first of the year, Bob, and we’re just wondering, where are we going? What’s the year ahead going to look like?

Bob Parsley: The short answer is we’re feeling very positive as we go into 2026. You know 2025 was actually a very good year for Houston in the office market. We saw our first positive net absorption since 2019, which is, I think, a reflection of a lot of the activity in the market in 2025. We think 2026 is going to continue to see growth. We see it as more of a managed growth. We don’t see any huge expansions, although as you know it was announced that Devon and Coterra are merging and Devon is going to be relocating over a period of time their offices and their people to Houston.

Ralph Bivins: Devon says they’re going to move their CEO and you figure that the whole C-suite is going to come and all their people. You’re wondering if the people in Oklahoma City are freaking out. That’s a big loss for them.

Bob Parsley: That’s right. They have both Devon, which if you’ve been to Oklahoma City and seen they’re building that sits over the skyline, it’s 50 stories. If they empty that out, it’s going to be a sore spot… Expand Energy, which is the former Chesapeake, they’re going to keep a presence in Oklahoma City, but they’re going to establish their corporate offices here in Houston.

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Ralph Bivins: You reckon they’ll go to the former Springwoods Village, now called City Place?

Bob Parsley: Yes, I do. My sense of it is that they’re going to be moving their C-suite leaders here, but they’re still planning on keeping a number of their folks in Oklahoma City. The announcement is a little bit different than the Coterra-Devon merger.

Ralph Bivins: Hey, but for Oklahoma City, two back-to-back. Whammo.

Bob Parsley: Yeah, they need to get the city fathers out selling a new dream. They’ve got some great office space there to be taken by somebody.

Ralph Bivins: That’s a first-class building, with Devon tower developed by Hines and designed by Pickard Chilton.

Bob Parsley: I don’t know if you’ve seen Expand Energy’s corporate office (in City Place). It is like a college campus. It’s gorgeous. They’ve got everything. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

Ralph Bivins: City Place, if you count Expand and the Exxon headquarters is right there too, they’re in good shape.

Bob Parsley: One of the trends, Ralph, that I have seen post COVID has been, if you look at where the office leasing and the activity has occurred, most of the absorption has been in the suburban markets. Last year, the West Loop submarket led Houston in terms of net absorption. That, combined with the Energy Corridor, the area there around Memorial City, that has been one of the hottest submarkets. After the oil crash of 2014, when all those buildings out there west of Beltway 8 were all coming online and they’re all empty. Now it’s hard to find any full-floor spaces out there.

In talking to a lot of our clients, one of the things that we’re seeing companies do somewhat grudgingly, but they’re doing it, is that now they’re going out and telling all their workers it’s time to come back to the office. A lot of them said, yeah I kind of I like working at home. And so, in order to entice these folks back to the office, the companies are moving to where the workers live.

Ralph Bivins: When you get to a building that’s over 10 years old, it’s hard to be competitive for those buildings.

Bob Parsley: I think that is a reality. Think about the buildings in the downtown market. You have Texas Tower, you have 609 Main, 811 Main, Bank of America Tower, the new Norton Rose Fulbright building. All of these buildings built 2015 on. All of those buildings have occupancies in excess of 90%. Now Norton Rose Fulbright is still in the lease up phase, but it’s going to get there.

What I’ve seen is the clients are looking for buildings that are more efficient. They’re looking for buildings that have a higher image. They’re willing to pay rental rates far greater than the other Class A office buildings. The Pennzoil building, One Shell Plaza, Two Shell Plaza, Wells Fargo Plaza. All those buildings were built back in the ’80s and they’re great buildings, but they are much more inefficient. They have larger core space. You’ll never see buildings built that tall again because of all the elevator requirements. It creates more core space. Large investment companies, law firms, companies that are image conscious are moving into these newer buildings.

When you ask the question, are we going to see new buildings? I definitely think we’re going to see new buildings. I don’t know about this year. I’ll be very surprised if we see new spec office buildings.

Ralph Bivins: The buildings that were built in that early ’80s boom time, what happens to them?

Bob Parsley: These older Class A buildings are trying to compete with these newer AA buildings that were built after 2015. You see what One Shell Plaza is doing right now. Owners are having to put in millions of dollars to upgrade those buildings to be competitive and they’re spending the money to do it. The vacancy rate in those Class A buildings downtown, setting aside these brand-new buildings, are still in the 27% vacancy range. And so, there’s got to be a move afoot. Some of the movements you’re seeing is companies just moving within buildings. There’s got to be a bigger more concerted effort on the part of our city fathers and the Greater Houston Partnership to continue to attract businesses into Houston to fill those buildings. We missed an opportunity in running light rail from the downtown market to the airports in my opinion.

Ralph Bivins: Just recently we heard our football NFL team, the Houston Texans, is building out in Bridgeland. It’s barely in Harris County, but it’s in Harris County, about 35 miles from the stadium where they play. It’s kind of a mixed-use development practice and headquarters. Tell me what you think about that and the impact of that.

Bob Parsley: I think that the Texans ownership looked around and saw what Jerry Jones did up in Frisco, Texas. I’m not sure what type of partnership that the Texans have made with Howard Hughes in terms of that property, whether they were able to acquire it or it’s a long-term ground lease. But what I do believe that’s going to be one of the drivers of continued development in the Bridgeland market.

Bob Parsley bio

Bob Parsley, Chairman & Principal of Colliers Houston, joined Colliers in 1983. He served as President and CEO of Colliers’ Houston office prior to becoming Co-Chairman in 2004 and Chairman in 2020. He brings a wide range of real estate experience, along with an understanding of the legal issues involved in real estate transactions. He has represented a broad range of corporate clients, both public and private, in office and industrial sales and office tenant rep lease transactions in Houston and throughout the USA. Bob serves as a member of Colliers’ Tenant Advisory Council, Healthcare Services Group and Law Firm Services Group. He has been one of the top two producers in the Colliers Houston office for the past 15 years.