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Commercial
Houston

OJB buys office in Midway’s East River development

Landscape architecture firm designed the space around its new home

From left: Midway's Brad Freels and OJB's Chip Trageser along with a renderin of Midway's East River mixed-use complex (Getty, Midway, OJB, East River HTX)
From left: Midway's Brad Freels and OJB's Chip Trageser along with a renderin of Midway's East River mixed-use complex (Getty, Midway, OJB, East River HTX)

A landscape architect is buying an office building in a Houston development whose outdoor space it designed.

OJB Landscape Architecture will move its headquarters from Pennzoil Place in downtown Houston to East River, a mixed-use complex being developed by Houston-based Midway, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The firm will occupy one of three two-story office/retail buildings called the Studios at East River, which provide the opportunity for ownership.

The buildings have minimal interior buildout with four restrooms, a kitchen, an elevator and about five surface parking lots. The 10,000-square-foot customizable buildings could cost about $500 per square foot, depending on build-out, Brad Freels, chairman and CEO of Midway, told the newspaper.

And there could be more in the pipeline.

“We’re testing the waters with three,” Freels said. “We can do a lot, if there’s demand for it.”

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OJB is leading the site and landscaping design for the 150-acre East River, at 100 Jensen Drive, immediately north of the Buffalo Bayou. The location has access to hike and bike trails and a mile of waterfront.

“We’ve done all these amazing spaces around the country,” Chip Trageser, partner at OJB, told the newspaper. “This is an opportunity to be in one of those spaces.”

OJB will occupy about 6,500 square feet and offer ground-floor leases to retail or commercial tenants. It expects to move in June.

The firm has worked with Midway on projects including CityCentre, Levy Park, Kings Harbor in Kingswood and Aggie Park at Texas A&M University.

“They really understand how people interact with the environment,” Freels told the outlet. “It’s just that first 14 feet of vertical space that people recognize and engage and relate to. They’re very good about getting that part right.”

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— Victoria Pruitt

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