History
Texas Eastern Corporation bought 32 blocks of land in Downtown Houston 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 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 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 900,000 square feet (84,000 m2) 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. 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, 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 6,758 square feet (627.8 m2) of space.
Read more about this topic: Houston Center
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