THE WOODLANDS – (Realty News Report) – Lancium Technologies Corp., an energy technology and infrastructure company, has leased an entire floor at The Woodlands Towers at The Waterway, occupying 26,530 square feet at 9950 Woodloch Forest Drive.
Lancium will locate its corporate headquarters, power trading and engineering offices in the building.
This lease follows another full-floor lease at 9950 Woodloch Forest Drive recently signed by NYDIG, a bitcoin company.
Lancium was represented by Aradio Zambrano of Aradio Zambrano Real Estate Company. The Howard Hughes Corporation was represented by Bob Parsley, Norm Munoz, Jillian Fredricks and Connor Duffy of Colliers.
The Woodlands, located 27 miles north of downtown Houston, has been one of the stronger office leasing submarkets in the region while overall vacancy across Houston has been rising.
“The Woodlands office market continues to have strong demand as companies choose to locate in this growing submarket,” said Bob Parsley of Colliers. “The Woodlands office vacancy rate was 16 percent in the third quarter of 2021, well below the Houston metro and downtown averages of 26.4 percent.”
The 31-story tower, formerly part of Anadarko Petroleum’s headquarters campus prior to Occidental Petroleum’s 2019 acquisition, totals 601,159 square feet and is currently about 43 percent leased. Other tenants include Western Midstream Partners LP (four floors); Howard Hughes Corporation (its corporate headquarters and Houston regional office on two floors); Colliers; Glenfarne Infrastructure Holdings; and Banorte Securities International.
“9950 Woodloch Forest, once known as Hackett Tower, is a Class AAA office building and the crown jewel of The Woodlands submarket, offering high-quality amenities found in few other local buildings, and at a competitive value,” Parsley said.
The building sits next to the 32-story 1201 Lake Robbins Tower, formerly named Allison Tower for former Anadarko CEO Bob Allison. Both towers overlook the 1.8-mile Woodlands Waterway. Allison Tower has been described as the tallest building between Houston and Dallas.
Securing two full-floor leases at 9950 Woodloch Forest represents a meaningful absorption of office space in the Houston market, which has faced pressure from the pandemic and volatile energy prices. West Texas Intermediate crude briefly traded at negative $37.63 per barrel on April 20, 2020, and several energy firms later filed for bankruptcy.
“We are extremely pleased that Lancium has selected The Woodlands for their new headquarters,” said Jim Carman, President of the Houston Region for The Howard Hughes Corporation. “This innovative infrastructure and technology development company adds to our strong leasing momentum and joins a growing list of respected businesses that call The Woodlands home.”
Last fall, Lancium announced it is breaking ground on a 100,000-square-foot “Clean Campus” data center in Fort Stockton, West Texas, intended for bitcoin mining and other high-throughput computing workloads.
According to Lancium’s announcement, the initial facility at the Fort Stockton Clean Campus will be 100,000 square feet. The first 25 megawatt stage is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2022, with the campus reaching full capacity of 325 megawatts by year-end.
“Green energy is the future, but we need to rethink the grid to accommodate its growth,” said Lancium CEO Michael McNamara. “Lancium’s controllable loads act like power stations in reverse—absorbing abundant renewable energy while providing grid ancillary services. Climate change is a major challenge, and Lancium is working on large-scale solutions.”
On the decision to locate its headquarters in The Woodlands, McNamara said: “As a leading company in the energy technology and infrastructure space, it made sense to place our headquarters in The Woodlands—a community at the heart of the energy transition. The Woodlands offers a strong talent pool, high quality of life and excellent amenities, and will support Lancium’s growth and national recruiting.”
One of the largest master-planned communities in the nation, The Woodlands covers 28,500 acres, is home to about 119,000 residents and employs more than 66,000 people.
The Woodlands was founded by the late Galveston-born developer George P. Mitchell, who played a role in the development of hydraulic fracturing techniques used in shale gas production.
Jan. 4, 2022 Realty News Report Copyright 2022
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