HOUSTON – Quantum Energy Partners has leased 32,000 square feet on the top floor of the 35-story downtown office tower currently under construction by Skanska USA Commercial Development.
The building, scheduled for completion in 2019, is now about one-third leased. Bank of America, occupying more than 210,000 square feet, is the anchor tenant and will serve as the tower’s namesake.
The 754,000-square-foot tower is rising on the Houston skyline at a time when the city’s office market is under pressure. Downtown Class A availability sits near 20.2 percent, and more than two million square feet of sublease space is listed, according to CBRE market data.
Quantum Energy will relocate from 5 Houston Center, a Crescent-built tower a few blocks away. Trey Strake and Chris Oliver of Cushman & Wakefield represented Quantum Energy; the firm expects to move into the new space in November 2019.
Warren Savery, Kristen Rabel and Rima Soroka of CBRE represented Skanska in the lease transaction.
“The top floor of Capitol Tower will provide Quantum with a prestigious office that is highly energy-efficient and offers unparalleled views of downtown Houston,” said Matt Damborsky, executive vice president at Skanska.
Named Capitol Tower, the Skanska development occupies a full downtown block bounded by Capitol, Rusk, Milam and Travis streets. The project will deliver approximately 754,000 square feet of office space and 26,000 square feet of retail, with substantial retail and restaurant space at the tunnel level. The address will be 800 Capitol St.
The tower is being built on the former site of the Houston Club building, which Skanska demolished in 2014. Skanska poured the tower’s foundation in August 2015.
When construction is complete, the building will be renamed for Bank of America, though the bank’s official corporate signage and the final tower name have not been formally announced. Bank of America will vacate its current offices in the 56-story Bank of America Center, a Hines-developed tower completed in 1983, and consolidate into the new headquarters space.
Skanska, part of a large Stockholm-based construction and development group, often uses internal financing to advance projects. That structure enables the company to move forward without waiting on external bank financing that can delay other developers.
Among Skanska’s other Houston developments is West Memorial Place, a two-building office complex in the Energy Corridor. Reports indicate that following Hurricane Harvey portions of the Memorial buildings experienced flooding, with water rising as much as three feet in areas near Addicks Reservoir and Terry Hershey Park.