Woodlands Office Tower Refinanced for $250 Million, Market briefs

In Houston, Howard Hughes Corp., reported the $250 million financing of its 1201 Lake Robbins building in The Woodlands.

The 806,000-SF office tower is fully leased to Occidental Petroleum through the end of 2032.

1201 Lake Robbins, together with 9950 Woodloch Forest Tower, make up The Woodlands Towers at the Waterway—the tallest towers in The Woodlands. The buildings are prominently located at the entrance of the Waterway Square District at The Woodlands, which offers 35 million SF of office, retail, hospitality, research, institutional and industrial space.

Howard Hughes Corp. purchased the buildings from Occidental Petroleum in December 2019.

The non-recourse 10-year financing bears interest at a rate of 3.827 percent and is interest-only for the full loan term. The financing provides moderate leverage to 1201 Lake Robbins while further bolstering the company’s robust liquidity position by approximately $248 million, net of transaction costs.

.”We are very pleased to execute such an attractive long-term and low-cost financing that represents a substantial return of our equity investment in 1201 Lake Robbins,” said David R. O’Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of The Howard Hughes Corporation. “This transaction further increases our already robust liquidity position and aligns with our commitment to focus our resources on the accelerated growth of our core MPC assets—yielding proceeds which we believe can be redeployed at significantly higher returns across the many expected opportunities in our pipeline.”

Owned and managed by The Howard Hughes Corporation, The Woodlands Towers at The Waterway encompasses the iconic pair of Class AAA office buildings, the 32-story, 1201 Lake Robbins tower and the 31-story, 9950 Woodloch Forest tower.

The buildings were formerly occupied by Anadarko Petroleum, which was purchased by Occidential Petroleum a few years ago.

A 31-story office building had been known as the Anadarko Allison Tower at 1201 Lake Robbins Drive. The tower was constructed in 2000 when Anadarko moved out of Greenspoint.

A 30-story, 595,854-SF office tower at 9950 Woodloch Forest Drive had been called the Anadarko Hackett Tower.

The Woodlands is a 28,800-acre large-scale planned community located 27 miles north of downtown Houston. The Woodlands is home to more than 118,000 people, and over 68,000 people work in the community.