MetroNational Buys former Marathon Oil Headquarters in Houston

MetroNational bought a 15-story Houston office tower that was formerly the headquarters of Marathon Oil this week.

The 442,000-square-foot tower, at 990 Town and Country Boulevard, is in West Houston along the Katy Freeway Sam Houston Tollway. MetroNational represented itself in the acquisition, the Houston Business Journal reported.

ConocoPhillips was the seller, represented by JLL’s Jeff Cairns, Brandon Clarke, Sanford Criner, Rick Goings and Kevin McConn. The price wasn’t disclosed. The building’s taxable value is $164.7 million, according to the Harris Central Appraisal District.

The building sits on 3.4 acres and was designed by Houston-based architecture firm Munoz + Albin. It was built in 2022. The Katy Freeway East submarket was attractive due to its single-digit vacancy rates and strong tenant demand in the area, MetroNational said.

The firm cited a trend of major employers moving west of downtown following residential population trends, adding that the corridor is one of the most active office markets in the nation.

Marathon Oil exited the tower last year when the company was acquired by ConocoPhillips for $22.5 billion.

The acquisition is the latest in a series of recent major real estate moves by MetroNational. It is partnering with Radom Capital, also a Houston-based developer, to transform a 35,000-square-foot warehouse at 1085 Gessner Road into a mixed-use hub called Greenside, which is in the same area. Plans for that project include 15 small retail spaces, along with office and restaurant space, plus a 1-acre park with a jogging trail and pedestrian paths that connect to nearby retail. Construction is expected to wrap up next year.

MetroNational is also redeveloping a former Sears site into a 27-acre mixed-use project called Memorial Town Square. In 2022, the company revived pandemic-postponed plans to a 190,000-square-foot, nine-story office building in Memorial City as well. That project wrapped up in 2023.

— Eric Weilbacher