The\u00a0Wideman Company paid the building\u2019s longtime owner, Brookfield Properties, an undisclosed amount for the 850,000-square-foot property.<\/p>\n
Located at 1201 Louisiana, the building has an appraised value of $121.8 million, according to Harris County deed records.<\/p>\n
The sale is another sign that well-maintained, trophy office assets continue to attract leasing and investment activity, even as the wider downtown office market faces a 24% vacancy rate, according to research from real estate firm\u00a0Transwestern. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done about 163,000 square feet of new leases at Jones since we\u2019ve bought it and that reaffirmed to us the fundamentals associated with the Houston market,\u201d said Harrison\u00a0Loew of The Wideman Company, in an interview.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies Tower, anchored by French energy giant TotalEnegeries, will allow Wideman to capture tenants who need bigger floorplates than what can be found at Jones on Main, he said. The company may also fund some improvements to boost occupancy, said Loew.\u00a0The building is about 82% occupied. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cSome designs when you look at them, they scream 1970s \u2013 others don\u2019t. When you look at TotalEnergies Tower, it is a glass, high-rise, a beautiful, modern, class A building and it\u2019s been kept up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With the\u00a0TotalEneriges Tower acquisition, Wideman now owns about 1.7 million square feet of office space downtown.<\/p>\n
The deal signals \u201clong-term confidence in the future of Houston\u2019s urban core,\u201d said Kris Larson, president of Downtown Houston.<\/p>\n
Yet the sale also represents another major divestment in downtown for Brookfield Properties, which\u00a0was the biggest office landlord <\/a>in the district with a portfolio of 11 million square feet just five years ago.<\/p>\n