Activity's Picking up in Greenspoint
As the price of oil has declined, interest in Greenspoint has risen, according to Hines senior managing director/market head John Mooz and director of asset management Kimberly de la Fuente. That's why we're excited to hear about the submarket’s strengths and weaknesses at Bisnow’s Future of Greenspoint event Sept. 22 starting at 7:30am at the Hilton Houston North.
Kimberly and John say Greenspoint has been getting as much user activity as anywhere in Houston. That’s partially because companies are more interested in a discount now that the economy has slowed, and Greenspoint office space is 20% to 50% cheaper than other submarkets for comparable top-tier product. Hines has been getting proposals ranging from 3k to 300k SF, and it can accommodate any of them. And John says people keep talking about the number of companies that have left Greenspoint, but most of them just outgrew their space and had to leave.
John and Kimberly tell us Hines is excited to be in the submarket and sees available space in its properties as an opportunity. That’s especially true of Greenspoint Place, which John says has been well-maintained but didn't have the amenity base that competing projects offered. The firm invested several million dollars into the property over the last couple of years to reposition it with new amenities like a state-of-the-art fitness center, a conference center, outdoor park areas and enhanced security. (John says prospects are universally telling him “wow, we didn’t know this was this nice.”) Its biggest hurdle is that it was 100% leased for so long that people stopped considering it an option. Hines also owns Pinto Business Park, where 2M SF of industrial has been built in the last three years. 700k SF of deals are in the works, and the remaining 300 acres could accommodate 4M SF more.
Greg Simpson, a panelist at our event, is in his third week as president of the Greenspoint District. His big focus as the face of the District will be telling the story of Greenspoint’s opportunities. Greg says the most prevalent is the availability of Class-A office space for the first time in years. Greg tells us rents are below city average on those, making Greenspoint a prime opportunity for companies seeking office space.
Greenspoint also has several lesser-known amenities, Greg says. One of the best-kept secrets is how many parks and how much green space are in the submarket. There’s a lot of park space around Greens Bayou (hugging the left of this photo), Greg tells us, and more is being added throughout the area, including a new park the District will start construction on later this year. Greenspoint’s also bulking up its infrastructure, including fiber optics, which is driving data center activity.
