The 555 Gemini Ave. building is one of several locations in Clear Lake leased by the Bethesda, MD-based Lockheed Martin for its space systems operations. Eric Anderson, senior vice president for Houston-based Transwestern Commercial Services, tells GlobeSt.com that the naming rights were not part of the five-year master lease.
Until six months ago, Lockheed Martin shared the two-story building with United Space Alliance, also an aerospace firm. Anderson says negotiations began for the former tenant's 39,000-sf block when the aerospace giant's lease came up for renewal.
According to Anderson, the Lockheed Martin team surveyed the Clear Lake submarket before committing to stay. He says the transaction went full circle in about 60 days.
Derrell Curry, senior vice president in Houston for Studley, represented Lockheed Martin. The firm's immediate need for extra space drove a build-out within 30 days, with move-in just taking place. Space in the class B building, owned by BGK Properties Inc. of Santa Fe, NM, was on the market for $16 per sf.
Anderson says Lockheed Martin, like other defense contractors, tends to lease only the amount of office space that it needs due to annual termination clauses that NASA likes to wrap into its contracts. Government contracts make up at least 78% of Lockheed Martin's annual sales, which totaled $31.8 billion last year.
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