Law Firm Expands to Full Floor in Struggling Downtown Houston

Houston law firm Reynolds Frizzell is doubling down on the central business district.

The litigation specialist is expanding its space at 1100 Louisiana Street, a 1.3 million-square-foot tower in downtown Houston. The office will now span a full 23,000-square-foot floor, about 8,000 square feet more than it currently occupies.

Reynolds Frizzell considered other buildings in the area, but decided to stay in part because it can expand on the floor it already operates out of, according to Savill’s Jim Bell, who repped the firm.

It is unclear how long the lease will last, but the deal came with an option for future expansion and a tenant improvement allowance. The firm will put some of the money toward building out a lounge.

The building’s major tenants include Enterprise Products, a services provider in the energy space, and corporate law firm King & Spalding. It includes 44,000 square feet of retail space and a parking garage with room for just over 2,200 cars.

Built in 1980, 1100 Louisiana briefly stood as the tallest building in Houston before being dethroned by JPMorgan Chase Tower in 1982. Its lobby was rebuilt in 2019. In general, the aging buildings in Houston’s downtown have struggled mightily in recent years.

Some 28 percent of the 42.1 million square feet of office space in the city’s downtown sits vacant, according to JLL. No new space is under development in the area.

Some major leases were still inked last quarter, including Jackson Walker’s 88,000-square-foot deal at 5 Houston Center, located at 1401 McKinney Street, and Fayez Sarofim’s 60,800-square-foot commitment at Texas Tower, at 845 Texas Avenue. Still, most leasing momentum has been concentrated in the Energy Corridor, which posted a city-best 749,000 square feet of absorption in the past year.