Hughes Landing Lands a HQ, Market briefs

In The Woodlands, CB&I, the 135-year-old company formerly known as Chicago Bridge & Iron, will relocate its regional and global headquarters to Hughes Landing in The Woodlands.

CB&I will move more than 150 of its 4,000 global employees into office space at 1725 Hughes Landing in September, building owner Howard Hughes Holdings reported.

Relocating from West Houston, CB&I will occupy 43,000 SF at Hughes Landing, a 79-acre multi-use development with office space, fitness facility options, access to walking trails, shops, restaurant, and multifamily.

Steve Hesse with JLL represented CB&I, while Scott Fikes and Jack Russo with JLL represented Howard Hughes.

Several years ago, CB&I occupied office space in Hughes Landing, before moving to West Houston. In 2018, CB&I was purchased by McDermott, has its offices at 915 N Eldridge Parkway in the Energy Corridor.

“Our employees look forward to rejoining and enriching the local community and calling The Woodlands home again,” said Mark Butts, Senior Vice President of CB&I.

Hughes Landing suffered a big gash of office vacancy after Exxon Mobil reported in the fall of 2021 that it would vacate about 500,000 SF of Hughes Landing office space and move to the Exxon headquarters campus in City Place (formerly called Springwoods Village.) At the time, Exxon occupied most of the space two buildings at 1735 and 1725 Hughes Landing Blvd.

Hughes Landing has made significant progress in backfilling the vacancy stemming from Exxon’s departure.

Last December, Howard Hughes reported a number of Hughes Landing lease transactions with tenants including Waste Connections, Design Tech Homes, Beusa Energy LLC, Sealube Marine, and DME Express LLC. Other Hughes Landing leases have been signed by Ring Energy, Haynes and Boone, and Plus Power.

Skyline Industrial Supply recently subleased 14,581 SF of former Exxon space at the 1735 Hughes Landing Blvd. office building, Colliers reported. The sublessor, Exxon Mobil was represented by JLL.

The Woodlands office market outperforms what’s going on in the big picture of Greater Houston. In the second quarter, The Woodlands area had an office vacancy rate of 18.2 percent, compared to 26.9 percent vacancy for the Houston metro area, Colliers reported.

“Great companies continue to recognize the advantages of relocating to The Woodlands, providing exceptional quality of life for their employees,” says Jim Carman, President of the Houston Region, Howard Hughes.

The Woodlands, a 28,500-acre large-scale planned community located 27 miles north of Downtown Houston, is home to 123,000 people. Nearly 72,000 people work in the community.