Houston—St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc. has signed a 10-year lease to occupy the first facility to come out of Koll Development Co.'s Intellicenter building program. The property casualty insurance company will consolidate more than 900 employees currently housed in four local offices into the entire 150,000-sf structure here.
According to Jake Ragusa, senior vice president with Dallas-based KDC, St. Paul Travelers was one of several firms interested in the property. "There aren't a lot of options for space of 150,000 sf or more in that area, so we immediately had some activity. Travelers was looking to consolidate and our building was located right in the middle of those sites," says Ragusa, who worked on the Intellicenter-Houston project with fellow KDC senior vice president Mark Cashman.
Under the terms of the $35-million lease, the tenant will initially occupy 140,000 sf, though Ragusa expects it to take the remaining 10,000 sf by the time the building is completed in March 2007. Located at 4650 Westway Park Blvd., the facility is part of the Wolff Cos.' 150-acre Westway Park development.
In addition to the building's size and location, the senior vice president believes St. Paul Travelers was attracted to the product itself. The property is the first of 16 that are planned under the Intellicenter building program, a joint venture of KDC and Prudential Real Estate Services that started in October 2005.
Ragusa relates that the branded, speculative program is an extension of KDC's build-to-suit work and offers features not commonly found in spec developments. "The idea was born out of a number of build-to-suits we had done over the past couple of years for our corporate clients, after listening to them tell us what kind of features they wanted," he explains.
The properties, ranging in size from 150,000 sf to 200,000 sf, have large floor plates, raised flooring and dense parking ratios and are LEED compliant.
CB Richard Ellis' Phil Arnett and Kyle Kelley are acting as the exclusive agents for Intellicenter-Houston. The Staubach Co.'s Tom Maloney and David Bale, meanwhile, negotiated the transaction on behalf of St. Paul Travelers
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