The Westport, CT-based company, which is the largest provider of same-day delivery services, will relocate the national operations group in mid-July to Corporate Plaza I at 2600 Southwest Freeway, according to Woody Miller, vice president of national driver operations for Velocity Express. The national operations group shares space with the local delivery group in a 65,000-sf office/warehouse at 8201 La Porte Freeway.
"We share a facility with 300 drivers and with 99 people in the national operations group, we are literally bursting at the seams," Miller tells GlobeSt.com. He says the lease expired at the end of May, but the company worked out a temporary deal until the new office is ready. He says the local delivery group also plans to relocate, but its lease has yet to be signed.
According to Miller, Velocity Express was looking for office space that would improve morale and be more centrally located. "We wanted to give people a nice place to work and wanted to make it convenient for all employees, not just the ones who live in the southeast part of Houston," he says.
Miller was assisted in the search by Ron McWherter of CB Richard Ellis Inc.'s Houston office. CBRE handles Velocity Express' real estate needs on a national basis. "Ron helped us figure out how much space we needed per person and helped us zero in on the Greenway Plaza area," he says.
The search focused on finding a building that could accommodate the team on one floor. Miller was close to signing a lease elsewhere, but called off the deal in the 11th hour. "Corporate Plaza initially wasn't even considered because it couldn't accommodate us on just one floor, but the building's access, economics and amenity base [compelled us] to go with it rather than the other building," he says. The firm is taking all of the third floor and part of the second story.
The 10-story, 121,812-sf building, owned by locally based Triyar Management of Texas, leases for $12 per sf to $13 per sf. The deal pushes occupancy to 50%. Ace Schlameus with Grubb & Ellis Co.'s Houston team represented Triyar in the transaction.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
