The World’s Most Important Skyscraper is For Sale

HOUSTON – (By Ralph Bivins of Realty News Report) – It’s true. The world’s most important skyscraper may have a new owner before the end of the year.

The questions start rolling in:

How can an office complex that opened in 1975 in downtown Houston be so important?

These two, conjoined trapezoidal towers are supposed to be important, but they are only 36 stories tall?

Yes, Pennzoil Place is truly important and 50 years after completion, it’s evident that it has impacted office towers erected around the globe.

Pennzoil Place kicked blandness to the curb. Pennzoil Place changed the way corporations view corporate headquarters.

Pennzoil Place changed architecture, demolishing old design norms and introducing what architects call the Post Modernism movement.

And with the courage demonstrated by Mr. Gerald D. Hines – one of the greatest real estate developers ever – a new money-making principle congealed at Pennzoil Place: buildings with great design can make more money than run-of-the-mill architecture.

After Pennzoil, finding a top-notch “Starchitect” to design a superior skyscraper became a reliable business plan for a developer.

Meanwhile, cities and citizens around the globe benefitted as skylines became more interesting and more beautiful.

Contemporary change in design trends, business practices and the evolution of downtowns all have been influenced from the seminal origins of Pennzoil Place.

“Building of the Decade”

Pennzoil Place was named the “Building of the Decade” in 1975 by famed New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable.

When Pennzoil Place opened, the hubbub echoed on an international stage. The era’s trendy pop artist, Andy Warhol, traveled to Houston to take Polaroid snapshots of the Pennzoil towers that were wrapped with dark bronze-tinted glass and featured unusual tops. The top of the towers are sharply slanted, not the typical flat-roof crown from downtowns of yore.

The Pennzoil innovation all started with a demanding, chain-smoking, wildcatter named Hugh Liedtke, the CEO of Pennzoil, and Mr. Gerald Hines, a mild-mannered but ambitious developer who had no visible fear of taking on mountains of risk.

In 1971, Hines Interests had just completed One Shell Plaza, a 50-story structure at 910 Louisiana in downtown Houston. It was the tallest building in town and Mr. Hines had persuaded Shell Oil to move its headquarters from New York to this new One Shell Plaza. It was Mr. Hines’ first super-tall project and it seemed like everybody in Houston was talking about it.

Pennzoil was hankering to move into a new headquarters building and a full-block construction site was under control only a block away from One Shell Plaza.

For Pennzoil, Mr. Hines engaged the services of architect Bruce Graham, who was part of the One Shell Plaza success story. After considerable study, they brought in a Pennzoil tower design for Liedtke to examine.

But the Pennzoil chief was not pleased at all. Liedtke pounded his fist on the table. “I’m not going to be Shell’s little baby!”

Liedtke wanted a unique building, and definitely not something overshadowed by Shell’s new headquarters, according to a biography on Mr. Hines by Mark Seal.*

Liedtke said his new building should be distinctive and recognizable to all as Pennzoil’s headquarters.

Architect Graham was out. Then, Mr. Hines brought in the architectural team of Philip Johnson and John Burgee.

And soon, on a block bounded by Capitol, Rusk, Milam and Louisiana streets, the two, dark-glass Pennzoil trapezoids arose with only ten feet of empty space separating them.

Masterpiece For Sale

Today, after a 25-year hold, the owners of Pennzoil Place – Metropolis Investment Holdings, which manages real estate for the Hugo Mann family, is ready to let go.

JLL Capital Markets, led by Jeff Hollinden and Kevin McConn, have been retained to market Pennzoil Place, which contains a total of 1.4 million SF.

Pennzoil Place is over 50% leased with a major tenant, the Bracewell law firm, leasing about 170,000 SF.

The Cheniere Energy firm, one of the largest liquified natural gas companies in the world, is leaving Pennzoil Place to occupy about 152,000 SF in Hines’ new Texas Tower building next to the old Rice Hotel property in downtown. Cheniere’s departure will move Pennzoil Place’s occupancy downward toward 40%.

A few years ago, the Gensler architecture firm moved out of Pennzoil Place to take 45,000 SF in downtown’s 2 Houston Center where Gensler was assisting Brookfield Properties with a redo.

With the vacancy that has arisen, could one of the Pennzoil Place office towers become a candidate for conversion into residential space? The building is near the Houston Theater District and numerous restaurants. Only a few office buildings are adaptable for re-use as apartments, however, when the intricacies of the office building are examined up close. Living in Pennzoil Place – can you imagine?

The Price?

Investment activity in Houston’s office market has increased over the last year. But capital markets pros say that although the deal count has risen, prices have not. In fact, prices have fallen for office buildings that suffer in the competitive post-Covid environment.

The Pennzoil sales price will never be fully disclosed. The odds are the price will be in excess of $100 million, maybe a lot more, possibly less.

As Pennzoil Place celebrates its fiftieth birthday this year, it’s hard to imagine Houston without this historic edifice and its impact on skyscraper development. Hopefully, when Pennzoil celebrates its one-hundredth birthday in 2075 it will continue to be a monument to the time when a Houston developer and a New York architect joined forces and imagined something outside the box and went trapezoidal instead.

*Footnote: Hugh Liedtke comments sourced from “Raising the Bar: The Life & Work of Gerald D. Hines.” By Mark Seal.

Mark Your Calendar

HOUSTON – CommGate announced its 2025 Development Showcase will be held May 15, 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the Houston Country Club. The event will provide Houston’s commercial brokerage community an overview of significant Houston area commercial real estate developments. Discounted pricing is available for CommGate, CCIM, SIOR, and HAR members. Register at CommGate.com

THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT PODCAST

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Sam Scott of CommGate

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Lacee Jacobs of Rebel Retail Advisors

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Danny Rice of Colliers

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Trey Odom of Avera

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Kris Larson of Downtown Houston +

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jim Carman of Howard Hughes Holdings

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jeff Havsy of Moody’s Analytics

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Sam Scott of CommGate

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with John S. Moody, Jr. of Moody Law Group

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Scott Martin of Granite Properties

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Robert Clay of Clay Development

Note: Houston’s Architecture, Engineering and Construction Community

HOUSTON – Houston’s largest gathering for its Architecture, Engineering and Construction community is the 2025 Houston’s Design Gala, to be held on May 17 at the 713 Music Hall at Post HTX. Proceeds from the event will benefit public programs of Architecture Center Houston. The organization connects people and places through engagement, advocacy and education on thoughtful design. Contact: info@aiahouston.org or aleks@aiahouston.org

File: The World’s Most Important Skyscraper is For Sale Houston Hines, The World’s Most Important Skyscraper is For Sale Hines, The World’s Most Important Skyscraper is For Sale, Philip Johnson, John Burgee, One Shell Plaza