Another Large Downtown Office Lease Continues Momentum Of Class-A Spaces
Law firm Baker Botts renewed and extended its downtown lease at 910 Louisiana St., a notably large lease in a submarket that's been sluggish for the entirety of the coronavirus crisis.
Baker Botts, which will now lease 172K SF in total, has been at 910 Louisiana — also referred to as One Shell Plaza — for 51 years, broker Cushman & Wakefield said in a release. Cushman & Wakefield's Winfield Haggard Jr. and Chip Colville represented landlord Busycon Properties. Savills' Mark O'Donnell, Jennifer Meehan and Lizzie Prochazka represented Baker Botts.
“Baker Botts is excited to extend our long-term relationship with Hines and Busycon Properties at 910 Louisiana,” Baker Botts Houston Partner-in-Charge Russell Lewis said in a release. “910 Louisiana has consistently offered our lawyers, staff and valued clients excellent service and amenities. We will be extensively modernizing our space to meet the needs of our firm and to continue to provide first-class service to our clients.”
910 Louisiana is 1.2M SF in total and is one of Hines' first high-rise office towers. Hines continues to manage the building, which has received $80M in renovations since 1991, the latest in 2020. Baker Botts cites those renovations as part of why it stayed in the building.
“Baker Botts has been an integral part of downtown Houston since its founding and the firm has had a long-standing relationship with the 910 Louisiana building where it has resided since 1971,” Savills Vice Chairman Mark O’Donnell said. “The law firm has grown in tandem with the city, and it made sense for Baker Botts to keep its current headquarters in the heart of the Central Business District."
The deal is now the biggest office lease this year in Houston, as multiple large companies have one-upped one another for the title of largest over the past few months. Until now, Cheniere Energy's 151K SF lease at Texas Tower was the year's largest. Most of the large downtown leases have seen tenants cite new, amenitized, Class-A space as their reason for signing.
