Lookin' Up
New downtown Hines tower lands major tenant; skyscraper will be called BG GroupPlace
The 46-story tower under construction in downtown Houston has landed a huge new tenant — the BG Group plc natural gas company — that will give its name to the building.
The new skyscraper, 811 Main Street, will be called BG Group Place.
BG Group will relocate from the Galleria area to the new building in mid-2011, according to the Hines real estate firm, which announced the deal late Monday.
BG Group leased 164,000 square feet in the new building, which will be completed next year. BG Group, one of the largest natural gas companies in the world, has an option to expand their offices in the tower. Houston real estate experts speculated that BG Group may expand to as much as 300,000 square feet of space.
The one million square-foot building will house as BG Group’s headquarters for its activities in the United States. Pickard Chilton, a New Haven, Conn.-based architecture firm led by Jon Pickard, designed the new building, which has been constructed with the working name of Main Place.
The building is owned by the HC Green Development Fund, a partnership of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and Hines, the Houston-based developer.
Jim Bailey, Joe Peddie and Tim Relyea of Cushman & Wakefield and Glenn Pinkerton of Vinson & Elkins represented BG Group in the deal. Chrissy Wilson and Stewart Robinson represented Hines.
KPMG, the accounting firm, previously leased 100,000 square feet in the new project. Hines has developed 23 projects totaling 17 million square feet in downtown Houston.
Ralph Bivins, former president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors, is editor-in-chief of RealtyNewsReport.com.