The new deal brings a definite measure of relief since the building owner has 600,000 sf to fill in a 1.5-million-sf structure, where lead tenant Williams slashed all but 217,595 sf of one million sf with a recent renewal that takes effect in March.

Steve Lindstrom, real estate director for NextiraOne's parent company, Platinum Equity, says all office submarkets from the CBD to the Woodlands were surveyed for a possible relocation site for the North American headquarters. "It was determined that staying in the Galleria would be the least impact on the employee population," he says, adding that the decision also "would eliminate unnecessary relocation costs of NextiraOne's state-of-the-art National Technical Resource Center."

The NextiraOne lease has been on the bargaining table for the past year. Jim Cooksey and Kathy Bellinger, both with Jackson & Cooksey in Dallas, represented the telecommunications firm while Hines in Houston, had Ronnie Martin and Michael Anderson negotiating for the building owner, Transco Tower Ltd. Lindstrom says negotiations were "very aggressive." The quoted rate is $25.85 per sf for the 64-story Williams Tower at 2800 Post Oak Blvd.