HOUSTON and CHICAGO — In two partnership deals, Hines plans to develop its tenth office tower in downtown Houston and has acquired Chicago’s Quaker Tower.
In Houston’s resurgent downtown submarket, locally based Hines will develop a 32-story, 689,000 sq. ft. office tower in partnership with Prime Asset Management. San Jose, Calif.-based energy concern Calpine Corp. has preleased approximately 300,000 sq. ft. in 10 floors, two of which will be trading floors. Located at 717 Texas, the building will bear Calpine’s name and also feature 10,000 sq. ft. of retail space. Upon the building’s completion in the fourth quarter of 2003, Calpine will relocate more than 1,100 employees from various Houston locations.
Joseph Peddie, senior vice president of Cushman Realty Corp., represented Calpine in the transaction, while David Kelley and Chrissy Wilson represented Hines.
Designed by the Houston office of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, the granite-clad monolith will have 24 floors of office space rising above a 900-car enclosed garage. The building will have floorplates of approximately 26,500 sq. ft. with 43-ft., column-free spans.
In Chicago, Hines and JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management, on behalf of a large public pension fund, have acquired Quaker Tower at 321 N. Clark St. in Chicago’s CBD. The 35-story, Class-A office tower was acquired from locally based Shuwa Riverfront LP, which acquired the project in 1989.
Built in 1987, the 840,000 sq. ft. tower is currently 95% leased — 50% to The Quaker Oats Co. and 20% to law firm Gardner Carton & Douglas. But both Quaker and Gardner Carton & Douglas are vacating the building in 2002, leaving more than 650,000 sq. ft. of contiguous space vacant. Washington, D.C.-based Gardner Carton & Douglas’ Chicago office will relocate to 200,000 sq. ft. in Hines 191 North Wacker development.