Duke's Spec Frenzy

If you build it, they will come (ideally tenants, not deceased baseball players): Duke Realty's spec office project in Northwest Houston has only been under construction for six months, and it's now 68% pre-leased.

Duke SVP David Hudson tells us he was always confident Sam Houston Crossing II would lease well, but he didn't expect to sign such a big lease so early. By now, you've heard that Forum Energy Technologies inked 109k SF, and he's in discussions for the remaining space and expects to hit 100% pre-leasing before the 159k SF building is shell complete by May.David says the building was designed with energy/oil field companies in mind and includes wide open spaces for collaboration.There's been several inquiries from the medical and financial services industries, but David says he believes the first floor of SHCII will be leased to an energy-related user based on Duke's list of prospects.

Here's how the property lookedyesterday;Forum will consolidate personnel from four buildings there. One big benefit is its location between Highways 290 and 249 on the Tollway, midway between the Energy Corridor and Exxon's new campus. So if you're sniffing for space, you better hurry: Only 50k SF is still available. At least he's rested before filling up the rest of the building, having just returned from a ski trip in Colorado. (Seems like a popular Houston vacation spot lately--as you recall from yesterday's issue, Liberty's Jay Kraft is there now.)