HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) — Younan Properties has acquired the Two Westlake Park office tower in Houston’s Energy Corridor as part of a planned expansion in the local real estate market.
Two Westlake Park is a 17-story, 455,000-square-foot office building located within a larger business park that historically housed major energy companies. Previously owned by PIMCO and Hicks Ventures, the building sits in a submarket that suffered significant setbacks after Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent downturn in the energy sector.
According to JLL, the property has experienced vacancy in recent years. At the peak of the energy market, BP leased roughly 91,000 square feet in the building and ConocoPhillips occupied about 200,000 square feet.
The tower is part of Westlake Park, a 58-acre campus containing approximately 2.8 million square feet of office space. The site is also near the former Exxon Chemical campus, which has been repositioned as Republic Square.
Younan previously owned the Two Westlake building and sold it to KBS Realty Advisors in 2011 for about $80 million.
“We owned this asset nine years ago, maintaining a 95 percent occupancy rate, and we are confident that we can achieve the same occupancy with the large investment we are planning to make to reposition this building as one of the best Tier 1 Class A buildings in the market. Our timing couldn’t have been better, as we believe this is a turning point for the Houston oil & gas industry, and this asset will benefit from the increased leasing velocity that we expect to see at the beginning of this year,” said Younan Company Chairman and CEO Zaya S. Younan.
Younan Properties represented itself in the transaction. JLL Capital Markets, led by former managing director Dan Miller and Martin T. Hogan, represented the seller. “This was an ideal asset for Younan Properties due to the fact that they have owned this asset before and are familiar with the Houston market. Not to mention, they are one of the few investors who have been able to close this transaction so smoothly and within such a short time frame,” Hogan said.
Miller recently left JLL to found HDM Realty Advisors.
Originally developed by Hines in 1982, Two Westlake Park is located at 580 WestLake Park Boulevard, east of Highway 6 and between Interstate 10 and Memorial Drive. The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
“This acquisition is part of our ongoing expansion in the Houston office market, targeting value-added opportunities with significant upside potential. Our strategy is to reposition this asset through creative renovations and updated tenant amenities,” said Younan.
Jan. 7, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
File: Younan Buys Energy Corridor
File: (2) Two WestLake. Hicks Ventures. PIMCO. Younan Buys Energy Corridor office building. Hines. Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Danny Miller. JLL. Martin Hogan. KBS Realty.