Haynes and Boone Renews Lease at Houston Center Tower
Houston Center
HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Haynes and Boone has renewed its lease at LyondellBasell Tower, a downtown skyscraper within Brookfield Properties’ Houston Center complex.
Under the new agreement, the law firm will occupy 72,903 square feet across the 38th through 40th floors of the 46-story tower.
The 1 million-square-foot LyondellBasell Tower, located at 1221 McKinney St., is part of the 4.2 million-square-foot Houston Center development situated in the heart of Houston’s Central Business District.
Originally completed in the early 1980s, LyondellBasell Tower was previously known as 1 Houston Center.
In December 2017, Brookfield Properties acquired the four-building, mixed-use Houston Center complex, which sits on 9.2 acres.
Brookfield is preparing a comprehensive redevelopment of Houston Center. The company, which owns roughly 12 million square feet of downtown office space, recently finished about $48.5 million in improvements at its nearby Allen Center complex and plans additional phases of upgrades.
The planned Houston Center redevelopment will encompass 2 Houston Center, Fulbright Tower, 4 Houston Center and The Shops at Houston Center retail area.
“The renovations planned for Houston Center will be transformative to the east side of downtown, and we are pleased Haynes and Boone chose to remain as a long-term tenant,” said Doug Little, senior managing director at Transwestern.
Haynes and Boone was represented in the lease negotiations by Steve Burkett, David Bale, Ed Prejean and Diana Bridger of JLL. Brookfield Properties was represented by Doug Little, David Baker and Kelli Gault of Transwestern, together with Clint Bawcom of Brookfield Properties.
Brookfield plans to invest substantially—well in excess of $50 million—in a modernization of Houston Center, which was constructed during the 1970s and 1980s. The redevelopment aims to revitalize the eastern portion of downtown by improving pedestrian access and replacing dated features such as skybridges and fortress-like facades with more welcoming, human-scaled design.
When Brookfield purchased Houston Center from JP Morgan Asset Management in December for $875 million, the complex reported an occupancy rate of roughly 72 percent.
To stay competitive, owners of older office buildings are increasingly undertaking major renovations and amenity upgrades. New developments—such as the 1 million-square-foot tower Hines is building at 801 Texas Avenue on the former Houston Chronicle site—offer modern amenities and open, collaborative spaces that appeal to younger workers and help tenants attract and retain employees.
As part of its broader strategy, Brookfield removed a skybridge at Allen Center to reconnect that complex to the street and create a public park called The Acre. Plans for Houston Center could similarly introduce activated green space and improved street-level engagement.
