Chicago firm has big plans for its first Houston acquisition

A Windy City firm is moving into the Houston office market, betting that lavish amenities designed to lure employees to the workplace will in turn lure employers to sign long-term leases.

In its first official acquisition in Bayou City, Chicago’s Level X Group has closed on the 16-story office building at 2100 West Loop South, according to the Houston Business Journal.

Level X is a private equity and real estate development firm based out of Chicago. Jamail Virani, a former banking analyst with Goldman Sachs spearheaded the purchase.

The seller, Houston-based Tarantino Properties listed the tower as 78 percent leased on its website, but the Houston Chronicle reported it as only 63 percent leased.

Robert LaCoure of Lee & Associates’ Houston office, the leasing agent for the property, touted the building’s location and its bones, noting that it’s “one of the only buildings in the Galleria that has 10,000-square-foot floor plates.”

LaCoure said the building, situated between San Felipe Street and Westheimer Road, could work for big or small tenants, but could also be a “fantastic opportunity for a long-term covered land play, should they decide to replace it with a larger tower in the future.”

The state of Houston’s office market varies depending on who you ask. Level X appears to side with Brookfield and other commercial real estate firms set on stacking up amenities in their properties to lure workers back to their desks. This strategy is most common in Houston’s western submarkets like the Galleria, Memorial City and the famed Energy Corridor.

LaCoure described 2100 West Loop South as a “value-add property,” which is exactly what Level X plans to do, with a heavy investment in new amenities. The convenient access between the first four floors and the parking garage has the building’s lobby into a ghost town. So, overhauling that space will be one of Level X’s first priorities, according to LaCoure. The company plans to add a coffee bar to the space to encourage employees to gather or hold meetings.

“There is talk of adding a golf simulator, which would be really cool,” LaCoure said.

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