Hines Spends $13M on Law Firm Tenant Improvements in Houston

Another global law firm scooped up office space in downtown Houston, and landlord Hines is spending $13 million for tenant improvements.

Paul Hastings leased 42,200 square feet at 609 Main Street, a trophy asset in Houston’s central business district. The renovations will touch 38,000 square feet, a public filing shows, putting the price at $342 per square foot.

The law firm will double its office space in the move, taking the entire 25th floor and part of the 26th, with an interconnecting stair.

The Los Angeles-based law firm snapped up roughly 4 percent of the building’s office space, according to commercial real estate firm Savills. Paul Hastings plans to relocate from its office at 600 Travis Street once renovations are completed next spring, according to a new release. That building is owned by Cerberus Capital Management and Hines Interests.

The renovation spending is the latest affirmation of the “flight to quality” trend as firms keep Houston’s office market steady by snatching leases in Class A buildings offering premium amenities. Hines filed $20 million plans for another build out just last month, at Houston’s Texas Tower in downtown, to spruce up 60,400 square feet of office space for British law firm Clifford Chance.

The largest third quarter office lease, also in Hines’ Texas Tower, went to global investment firm Fayez Sarofim & Company, which signed for about 60,800 square feet, according to Savills.

Houston’s central business district scored four of the top 10 office leases in the quarter, along with three in the Katy Freeway submarket, two in The Woodlands and one in the West Loop — all but one were relocations, or renewals and expansions, for a combined total of roughly 440,000 square feet.

The 48-story building at 609 Main Street opened in May 2017, developed by Hines and designed by Pickard Chilton. A deal to sell the building for $700 million to a group led by Korean investment firm KB Securities fell apart at the onset of the pandemic in April 2020.

The building is anchored by United Airlines, which has a lease on a fifth of the building, paying roughly $32 per square foot until 2029. WeWork rejected its 56,000-square-foot lease, about 5 percent of the building’s space at about $33 per square foot in base rent, following the co-working company’s bankruptcy filing in May. Paul Hastings also plans to relocate in Dallas to an expanded office space in a nine-story building in The Knox Street Development, a joint venture partnership of BDT & MSD Partners, Trammell Crow Company, the Retail Connection and Highland Park Village Associates. The mixed-use expansion is slated to deliver in spring 2026 and cost $93.5 million, state filings show.