Brookfield signs two more to Houston Center campus amid renovation

Law firm, staffing agency combine to commit to about 70K sf

Brookfield Properties' Travis Overall with the Houston Center
Brookfield Properties' Travis Overall with the Houston Center (Houston Center, Brookfield Properties)

Are skybridges an answer to back-to-work woes?

New York-based Brookfield Properties just landed two new tenants for its Houston Center development, the Houston Business Journal reports.

The aptly named Houston Center is a 4.2 million square-foot mixed-use development smack dab in the middle of downtown Houston, with sky bridges connecting the project to

International law firm Reed Smith has signed on for 46.626 square feet, and will move the Hines’ downtown office tower at 811 Main. Chicago-based APFS Staffing Holdings—parent company of the Addison Group—will take 24,830 square feet, shifting from a nearby office on McKinney Street.

Brookfield is still in the thick of its massive renovation of Houston Center. The campus was first acquired by Brookfield Property Partners in December 2017, and the developer’s Brookfield Properties unit announced the first phase of transformation plans in January 2019.

The development encompasses four towers, which, upon completion will total 4 million square feet of office space with 200,000 square feet for retail. Plans call for three sky bridges connecting LyondellBasell Tower to Fulbright Tower and both of them to 4 Houston Center.

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Reed Smith will occupy space on floors 21 and 22 of LyondellBasell Tower at 1221 McKinney Street. The two floors in LyondellBasell Tower are still under construction, but when complete, they’ll be fit with collaborative work areas, 10 conference rooms, wellness spaces, and technology to accommodate remote meetings for the firm’s international clients.

Across the western skybridge, Addison Group will take space on the 12th floor of 4 Houston Center at 1331 Lamar Street.

Brookfield exec Travis Overall says the two new lease agreements, “speak highly of the significant improvements that have already been made to Houston Center and those currently in progress.”

Meanwhile, homebuilder Perry Homes and oilfield services giant Baker Hughes have both shrunk their Houston office space to adjust for hybrid work schedules. Betchel even left its home of 40 years to move into a lease of half its size.

Maddy Sperling