Energy Center Three, Four & Five

Location

Houston, Texas

Product Type

Office

Timeline

Project Start: 2012
Project Completion: 2016

Overview

Energy Centers Three, Four, and Five boast 1.67 million square feet of Class AA office space. Located in Houston’s Energy Corridor at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and Eldridge Parkway, the development includes numerous amenities, including active greenspace and a water feature to provide outdoor areas for tenant enjoyment.

Energy Center Three, a 20-story, 546,000-square-foot office building includes a nine-level, free-standing parking garage, a high-performance skin of glass curtainwall and metal panels, and a post-tension concrete structure. Energy Center Four is a 22-story, 600,000-square-foot office building completed in Fall 2015. Energy Center Five is a 19-story, 450,000-square-foot building completed in June 2016. Additional amenities include a double-height lobby, a fitness center, a conference center and a dining facility.

All three buildings achieved LEED Gold Certification.

Opportunity & Outcomes

In 2012, the Class A Houston office market registered impressive gains despite a sluggish national economy. Energy and energy services companies began to expand as a result of the overall expansion in the domestic and offshore energy upstream industry. Large energy related tenants requiring high-end Class A space had very limited choices around the city. The Energy Corridor submarket, which is consistently one of Houston’s top performing markets, was around 97 percent occupied with very few large blocks (>100,000 square feet) available for lease.

Additionally, due to the overall national economy, speculative office construction had not returned in any market across the country, and lenders and equity partners were reluctant to begin the first new speculative construction project coming out of the recent recession.

However, due to the expansion requirements of energy and energy services tenants, developers in Houston began to identify and source raw land sites in the Energy Corridor submarket for future office development projects. TCC and Principal Real Estate Investors partnered together to acquire one of the last remaining prime development sites within the Energy Corridor submarket. In December 2012, TCC and Principal closed on a construction loan and began construction of Energy Center Three. As a result of TCC and Principal’s speed to market, multiple tenant prospects engaged in discussions to lease the entire building.

In April 2013, ConocoPhillips signed an 850,000-square-foot lease for the entirety of Energy Center Three, and half of Energy Center Four. In November 2013, ConocoPhillips signed a lease for the remainder of Energy Center Four, taking the tower to full occupancy prior to construction start.