Houston Law Firm Signs Lease in TC Energy Center

A poster child for Houston office distress is still bleeding even after it secured a lifeline earlier this summer.

One Riverway is losing law firm Wright Close & Barger, which signed a 41,000-square-foot lease to occupy TC Energy Center, at 700 Louisiana Street in downtown Houston, the Houston Business Journal reported.

The firm is exiting 777 South Post Oak Lane in the Galleria. That 507,000-square-foot building has been scheduled for auction at least seven times in the last few years. Its owners, Israel-based Azrieli Group and Beverly Hills-based Unilev Capital, finally scored a recapitalization deal with lender German American Capital Corporation earlier this summer, Bisnow reported.

The deal includes a loan modification and additional equity with which the owners plan to renovate the common areas and build spec suites.

But it hasn’t staunched the bleeding of the emptying building.

The law firm’s exit frees up about 5 percent of the space at One Riverway. In 2024, the building lost Houston-based law firm Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, which leased 11 percent of the building.

The building was 51 percent occupied in December. The owners first fell behind on payments on the property’s $80 million mortgage in June 2023.

TC Energy Center is one of downtown Houston’s most recognizable properties. Built in 1983, the 56-story, 1.5 million-square-foot tower is made of red granite and features a three-part gabled roof rising on an incline. It’s owned by Houston-based M-M Properties.

Founding partner Tom Wright called downtown “the heart of our legal community”

The property was saved from default when the owner reached a deal with lender Starwood Property Trust to modify its $252 million mortgage last year, Houston Chronicle reported. The owner raised $30 million for renovations last year. The last round of updates took place in 2017 and cost about $20 million.

Previously the Bank of America Center, the building was renamed when TC Energy signed a lease in 2019.