Houston Center
Encyclopedia
Houston Center is a retail and office complex in Downtown
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...

 Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is owned and operated by subsidiaries of Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. (NYSE: CEI).

The three towers in Houston Center have almost 3400000 square feet (315,870.3 m²) of Class A office space. The buildings in Houston Center include:
  • 1 Houston Center (CS, PL)
  • 2 Houston Center (PL)
  • Fulbright Tower (formerly 3 Houston Center, EU, FR, PL)
  • 4 Houston Center
  • 5 Houston Center
  • The Shops in Houston Center (formerly The Park Shops)
    • The Shops, built in 1982, is an enclosed shopping mall
      Shopping mall
      A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

      .
  • Four Seasons Hotel Houston
    Four Seasons Hotel Houston
    Four Seasons Hotel Houston is a part of the Toronto-based Four Seasons chain of luxury hotels and resorts. Four Seasons Hotel Houston, the only AAA Five Diamond hotel in downtown Houston, also has an Italian restaurant, Quattro with Chef Maurizio Ferrarese. Four Seasons Hotel Houston is located in...


History

Texas Eastern Corporation bought 32 blocks of land in Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...

 for $50 million. Texas Eastern razed the existing buildings and proposed building Houston Center, a large office space development. Texas Eastern planned to build elevated walkways, people movers, and underground garages. Houston Center was one of the largest private development projects ever, however only a small portion of the plan was realized, leaving a large swath of downtown Houston covered in parking lots and vacant land. Panhandle Eastern
Panhandle Eastern
Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, LP is a natural gas pipeline which brings natural gas from the panhandle region of Oklahoma east through the Midwest to supply Indiana and Ohio. It is owned by Panhandle Energy - Southern Union Gas Company. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas, United...

 Corporation acquired Houston Center when Texas Eastern was sold to Panhandle for $2.5 billion in stock in June 1989. Later that year Panhandle sold Houston Center to JMB Realty
JMB Realty
JMB Realty Corporation is a real estate investment company based in Chicago that at one time was one of the largest property developers in the United States. The company was founded as Robert Judelson & Co. in 1968...

 for $400 million; Panhandle planned to use the money from the sale to reduce its debt, which it accumulated from the merger. Panhandle planned to move out of the 900000 square foot of office space that it occupied in Houston Center and move its operations and 1,300 employees at Houston Center to its corporate headquarters near the Uptown District
Uptown Houston
The Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road , and the Galleria...

. Panhandle planned to move in increments over a three year period after 1989, with one third of its Houston Center workforce moving each year. In 1989 Houston Center consisted of three office buildings and one hotel. Its occupancy rate in December 1989 was about 90%.

Crescent purchased Houston Center in 1997 for $328 million. In 2000 Crescent sold the Four Seasons Hotel Houston
Four Seasons Hotel Houston
Four Seasons Hotel Houston is a part of the Toronto-based Four Seasons chain of luxury hotels and resorts. Four Seasons Hotel Houston, the only AAA Five Diamond hotel in downtown Houston, also has an Italian restaurant, Quattro with Chef Maurizio Ferrarese. Four Seasons Hotel Houston is located in...

, a hotel that is a part of Houston Center, to Maritz, Wolff & Co., a hotel investment group, for $105 million.

In October 2002 Houston Center was 95% leased.

In 2004 Crescent attempted to sell a 50% equity position in both Greenway Plaza and Houston Center. During that year the Class A office space in the entire complex was 94% leased. In addition, in 2004 many of the 32 blocks that were originally scheduled to be a part of the Houston Center development remained undeveloped.

In 2009 Castle Brands (USA) Corp., R.F. Borghese, LLC, Bennett G. Fisher, and Third Planet Windpower, LLC renewed their leases in their sections of Houston Center. Together they held 6758 square foot of space.

1 Houston Center

Opened in 1978, this building has 46 floors with Class A office space and is located at 1200 block of McKinney Street. The building is 678 feet (207 m) tall. It was designed by Caudill Rowlett Scott
Caudill Rowlett Scott
Caudill Rowlett Scott was an architecture firm in Houston, Texas.In 2005, it was named "Firm of the Century" by Texas A&M University College of Architecture ....

 and built by W.S. Bellows Construction. LyondellBasell has its Houston offices in 1 Houston Center. When Lyondell was an independent company, its headquarters were in 1 Houston Center.

In 1999 Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...

 Capital Markets expanded its lease to 23520 square foot in 1999. In 2000 Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....

 occupied 140000 square foot of space on five floors in 1 Houston Center. When 5 Houston Center opened in 2003, Ernst & Young pulled its operations from 1 Houston Center and moved them into 5 Houston Center, leaving 100000 square foot of space in 1 Houston Center vacant. Two of the five floors that Ernst & Young left behind were leased to other firms by July 2003. Cozen O'Connor
Cozen O'Connor
Cozen O'Connor P.C. is a large U.S. law firm based in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The firm was ranked 99th on the AmLaw 100 Survey in 2011, ranked 114th on the AmLaw 200 Survey in 2008, and ranked 89th on the National Law Journal's list of the 250 Largest American Law Firms in 2007...

 opened an office in 1 Houston Center in 2004. On November 22, 2005, Alain Robert
Alain Robert
Alain Robert , is a French rock and urban climber, from Digoin, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France...

, a French rock
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...

 and urban climber
Buildering
Buildering is the act of climbing on the outside of buildings and other artificial structures. The word "buildering" is a portmanteau, combining the word "building" with the climbing term "bouldering".If done without ropes or protection far off the ground, buildering may be dangerous...

 nicknamed "Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

", was arrested attempting to climb the building. In 2008 the law firm Fish & Richardson
Fish & Richardson
Fish & Richardson P.C. is a national law firm practicing intellectual property law.Fish is the 109th largest firm in the United States. Fish has over 350 attorneys, of which 96 percent are dedicated to intellectual property law. Fish is one of the most sought-after firms for both patent...

 opened an office in 1 Houston Center on October 1, 2008. As of 2010 Haynes and Boone
Haynes and Boone
Haynes and Boone, LLP is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Washington, D.C., Mexico City and Moscow. Haynes and Boone is ranked the 76th largest law firm in the nation by the National Law Journal...

 has an office in 1 Houston Center.

2 Houston Center

Opened in 1974, this building has 40 floors with Class A office space It is the 19th tallest building in the city. It was planned to be the center of a master-planned "city within a city" that would have included a tram system that would have tied in with U.S. Highway 59 and run into the tower itself, and a four-story 40,000 car parking garage. It currently has six levels of parking for 495 cars. Several levels of this building extend across Fannin Street and connect to 1 Houston Center. They include a x bracing where the tramway would have been and a patio. It sits on top of Houston's six-mile (10 km) tunnel system.

In 1999 former Mayor of Houston Bob Lanier
Bob Lanier (politician)
Bob Lanier is a businessman in the real estate industry who served as mayor of the city of Houston, Texas from 1992 to 1998...

 moved the office of his real estate company to 2 Houston Center. Landar Corporation, Lanier's company, leased 9700 square foot in 2 Houston Center. In July 2007, a fire was set in the northeast corner of the 16th floor of the building. In 2008 Crescent and the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund worked together for 10 weeks to cost-effectively upgrade 2 Houston Center. As a result, Crescent will install new lighting, mechanical, and office equipment systems that will reduce the building's total electricity usage by 11%. The new systems may save Crescent and the tenants of 2 Houston Center $400,000 combined each year, and carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

 emissions would be reduced by over 1,300 tons per year. Crescent plans to reduce 2 Houston Center's electricity usage by 20% over a 10 year period beginning in 2008. The company anticipates that the reduction will save the company $700,000 per year. In 2009 McJunkin Red Man Corporation expanded its lease in 2 Houston Center to 13865 square foot of space.

The United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

 operates a center in 2 Houston Center. In July 2011 the USPS announced that the post office may close.

The Houston Downtown Management District is headquartered in Suite 1650. The Consulate-General of Japan in Houston
Consulate-General of Japan in Houston
The is Japan's diplomatic facility in Houston, Texas, United States. It is located in Suite 3000 at 2 Houston Center, which is located at 900 Fannin Street in Downtown Houston...

 is located in Suite 3000.

4 Houston Center

4 Houston Center is a 674246 square foot office building. In 2001 the building was 97% leased. The lower levels of 4 Houston Center have the Shops at Houston Center.

In 2001 RWE Trading Americas
RWE
RWE AG , is a German electric power and natural gas public utility company based in Essen. Through its various subsidiaries, the energy company contributes electricity and gas to more than 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers, principally in Europe...

 leased 25000 square foot of space in 4 Houston Center for its United States headquarters. The firm had the option to lease an additional 50000 square foot of space in the following 18 months. Candace Baggett, the president of the real estate firm Calibre Group, said that the building is attractive to firms which need space for energy trading firms since the building has broad floors, each with over 50000 square foot of space. Energy trading companies typically have wide-open trading floors. Many office buildings have half of the amount of space per floor that 5 Houston Center has. Marian Livingston of Calibre said that in 2001 it was difficult for an energy firm to find a large block of vacant space in Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...

 because of the tight market. Calibre represented RWE in the lease.

5 Houston Center

5 Houston Center, a 27 story 580875 square foot tower, has Class A Office space. Each floor of the tower has 29000 square foot of space. When the building opened, every floor had broadband internet capability. The tower was worth $117 million in 2002. At one time Halliburton
Halliburton
Halliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people....

 had its world headquarters in 5 Houston Center.

In 2000 Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....

 signed a 10 year lease for about 127000 square foot of space in the building. Crescent waited for another lease agreement before finalizing plans to build the tower. Construction began on November 2000. The tower, opened ahead of schedule in September 2002, was the first multi-tenant development in Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...

 completed since 1986. When it opened it was 88% leased. The building opened with an eight level parking garage inside. The garage, with a ratio of 2.2 cars per 1000 square foot, had the highest car to square foot ratio of any garage in Downtown Houston in 2002. In 2003 5 Houston Center was 92 percent leased. When the tower opened, Ernst & Young U.S. LLP became the largest tenant in the building. Ernst & Young moved its employees and operations to 5 Houston Center from 1 Houston Center.

Halliburton
Halliburton
Halliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people....

, which signed its lease to occupy a portion of 5 Houston Center in 2002, moved its headquarters there by July 2003. Halliburton occupied 26000 square foot of space on the 24th Floor in 5 Houston Center. The occupancy rate at 5 Houston Center became 80% after Halliburton signed the lease agreement. In addition Jackson Walker, a law firm, moved into 5 Houston Center by 2003. Halliburton planned to move its headquarters to another site in Houston by 2012. By 2009 the Halliburton headquarters had moved.

Fulbright Tower

The Fulbright Tower is a 52 story skyscraper originally known as 3 Houston Center. The tower has 1247061 square foot of Class A office space. The building at one point was owned by ChevronTexaco. As of 2005 Crescent owns the tower in a joint venture with the affiliates of GE Asset Management and JPMorgan Asset Management.

Construction on the tower was scheduled to begin in November 1980. The building was built in 1982. The tower property was developed in 1985. Fulbright & Jaworski became a tenant during that year. Chevron
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...

 became the building's main tenant, and its name became the Chevron Tower. Fulbright & Jaworski renegotiated and extended its lease in 2003 and retained the possibility of naming rights; as of 2005 the firm occupies 350000 square foot of space. On February 24, 2005, Crescent completed the joint venture agreement involving the Fulbright Tower; a pension fund investor advised by JPMorgan Asset Management bought a 60% ownership interest in the building and an affiliate of GE Asset Management bought a 16.15% ownership interest. In 2004 ChevronTexaco sold the building to Crescent. During that year the tower was 49% occupied. By March 2005 ChevronTexaco planned to move its operations out of the tower after buying 1500 Louisiana Street
1500 Louisiana Street
1500 Louisiana Street, formerly Enron Center South, is a 600 ft tall Post-Modern skyscraper in Houston, Texas. It was completed in 2002 and has 40 floors. It is the 17th tallest building in the city and the tallest completed in the 2000s....

 in Downtown Houston. Fulbright & Jaworski used their naming rights, and in 2005 the building gained the name Fulbright Tower. In 2005 the Fulbright Tower was 57% occupied. In 2006 Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...

 still occupied three floors at the Fulbright Tower. In 2009 Conway MacKenzie leased 4619 square foot at the Fulbright Tower.

Proposed additions

Crescent proposed the building of 6 Houston Center in the 2000s. As of 2009 the plans did not materialize.

Shops at Houston Center

As of 2010 4 Houston Center's Shops at Houston Center has over 35 specialty retailers and 30 restaurants; as of the same year 14,000 people per day shop at the Shops at Houston Center. The Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...

said that the shops are "a haven for the lunch-hour shopping fix." In 2003 a major renovation by Development Design Group of Baltimore was enacted.

Retail operations at The Shops at Houston Center include:
  • 1 Houston Center: 1221 McKinney Street
    • P3 Level: Kelsey-Seybold Clinic
      Kelsey-Seybold Clinic
      The Kelsey-Seybold Clinic is a large multi-specialty clinic system located in the metro area of Houston, Texas. The clinic system is a major provider of healthcare for NASA and a center for healthcare research.- History of Kelsey-Seybold :...

       (Suite 300)
    • ChevronTexaco Credit Union (Suite 469)
  • 2 Houston Center: 909 Fannin Street
    • Bank of America
      Bank of America
      Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...

       (Suite 2)
  • 4 Houston Center: 1200 McKinney Street
    • Jos. A. Bank (Suite 105)
    • T-Mobile
      T-Mobile
      T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

       (Suite 305)
    • Subway
      Subway (restaurant)
      Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...

       (Suite 343)
    • Ninfa's
      Ninfa's
      The Original Ninfa's on Navigation is a popular Mexican restaurant located at 2704 Navigation Boulevard in Houston, Texas. The restaurant serves both Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine. The Original Ninfa's was started by Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo, a Mexican-American woman...

       (Suite 356)
    • Chick-fil-A
      Chick-fil-A
      Chick-fil-A |"fillet"]]) is a quick service restaurant chain headquartered in College Park, Georgia, United States, specializing in chicken entrées and is known for promoting the company founder's claims of Christian values. Long associated with the southern United States, where it has been a...

       (Suite 363)
    • Great American Cookies
      Great American Cookies
      Great American Cookies is a chain of independently owned and operated franchised stores that specialize in gourmet cookies. It is a franchise brand in the portfolio of . With more than 290 stores in the U.S., Great American Cookies stores are most commonly based in malls nationwide, particularly in...

       (Suite 369)
    • Starbucks
      Starbucks
      Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

       (Suites 373 and 496)
    • RadioShack
      RadioShack
      RadioShack Corporation   is an American franchise of electronics retail stores in the United States, as well as parts of Europe, South America and Africa. As of 2008, RadioShack reported net sales and operating revenues of $4.81 billion. The headquarters of RadioShack is located in Downtown...

       (Suite 391)
    • DressBarn
      DressBarn
      Dress Barn is an American retailer of women's clothing. The first Dress Barn was opened in 1962 in Stamford, Connecticut, by Roslyn Jaffe. The company began trading on NASDAQ in 1982...

       (Suite 395)
    • Quizno's (Suite 402)
    • General Nutrition Centers
      General Nutrition Centers
      General Nutrition Centers is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based American commercial enterprise focused on the retail sale of health and nutrition related products, including vitamins, supplements, minerals, herbs, sports nutrition, diet & energy products.-History:In 1935, David Shakarian opened a...

       (Suite 421)
    • Starship Hallmark Cards
      Hallmark Cards
      Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....

       (Suite 429)
    • Chase
      Chase (bank)
      JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase, is a national bank that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of financial services firm JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000...

       (Suite 433)
    • Potbelly Sandwich Works
      Potbelly Sandwich Works
      Potbelly Sandwich Works is a privately held restaurant chain that sells submarine sandwiches in the United States. Its name is derived from potbelly stoves common in the late 19th century. The company is headquartered in the tower of the Merchandise Mart in the Near North Side, Chicago,...



In 2010 Kelsey-Seybold Clinic stated that it would move from its original location at 1 Houston Center to the Shops at Houston Center at 4 Houston Center. Kelsey-Seybold will take 23000 square foot of space and will house an imaging center, a clinical laboratory, a pharmacy, and primary care and specialty physicians. The construction of the center was scheduled to begin in July 2010, and completion was scheduled to occur in December 2010. The Kelsey Seybold in 1 Houston Center has 12700 square foot. Nicholas Ro, Kelsey-Seybold's vice president of strategic and legal affairs, said that if a customer walked into the lobby of 1 Houston Center, he or she would be unable to see the original clinic. Ro said that the clinic will move to gain a more visible location. The current Kelsey Seybold pharmacy opened on Monday January 17, 2011.

Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks , operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware as well as a children's edutainment chain under Walden Kids...

, formerly in Suite 399 in the Shops at Houston Center, was scheduled for closure.

See also



External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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