Lincoln Property Plans Spec Lab-Office Project in Houston

Lincoln Property Company is seeking partners to jump aboard its speculative office and laboratory building that will be anchored by Rice University.

The Dallas-based developer is planning The Arc at the Ion District, a nearly 200,000-square-foot research, laboratory and office building in Midtown Houston. Lincoln hopes to secure construction financing soon and break ground as early as next quarter, Executive Vice President Gabe Lerner told Bisnow.

The project emerged after Rice approached several developers about expanding the innovation-focused district it is building around The Ion hub, adjacent to the original Ion building at 4201 Main Street.

A third party has begun outreach to lenders this month, and early discussions suggest debt markets are receptive — helped by Rice’s role as a lead tenant and Lincoln’s willingness to invest its own capital in the project, according to the outlet. The university plans to occupy nearly 30,000 square feet of office and lab space for faculty and students.

Houston’s office market remains among the softest in the country, with vacancy at 26.5 percent at the end of last year, according to Avison Young. That’s well above the national average of 20.5 percent tracked by Cushman & Wakefield.

The Arc will include a mix of office and life sciences space, though the exact split hasn’t been finalized. Lincoln is designing flexible floor plates that can tilt toward labs or traditional offices depending on market demand.

That flexibility could prove critical, as life sciences development faces a national reckoning, according to the publication. In Boston, the country’s largest lab market, more than a third of life sciences space sat vacant at the end of the third quarter of last year after years of aggressive development.

Houston, however, has been trying to build a life sciences ecosystem around the Texas Medical Center and Midtown’s innovation corridor. The Arc will rise within Rice’s 12-block Ion District, a redevelopment anchored by a 287,000-square-foot adaptive reuse of a former Sears department store.

That building is more than 90 percent leased to tenants including Chevron, Microsoft, Aramco and BP, alongside academic, office and event space. The district also includes Greentown Labs, a climate-tech startup incubator.

— Eric Weilbacher