HOUSTON-The General Services Administration has committed to a 10-year lease for 132,539 square feet at Wells Fargo Plaza in downtown. The U.S. Attorney’s office will occupy the class A office space, which is located at 1000 Louisiana St.
The U.S. Attorney’s office will relocate from its existing location at 919 Milam St. to its new space in early 2011. It will occupy roughly 10% more square feet at Wells Fargo Plaza than it does now, according to Bruce Rutherford, a managing director in Jones Lang LaSalle’s local office.
Rutherford represented the GSA in lease negotiations, along with Executive Vice President David Bale, Senior Vice President Louie Crapitto and Associate Anna Schinas. Brian Weiss, an associate in the Jones Lang LaSalle Public Institutions group based in Chicago also represented the GSA. Dave Hanusa and Bonnie Kelley, both senior vice presidents with CB Richard Ellis, represented the landlord, MetLife.
The U.S. Attorney’s office has been in the same building for 15 years and its lease was coming up for renewal. “The GSA does not relocate very often,” Rutherford notes, but adds that the agency decided to evaluate the market because it wanted more efficient space and the opportunity to modernize its facilities by introducing new technology and security.
Rutherford tells GlobeSt.om that the Jones Lang LaSalle team has been working on this GSA assignment for more than two years. Among the key criteria, the GSA wanted to space close to the U.S. Federal Court building at 515 Rusk St.
“The GSA wanted the lawyers in the U.S. Attorney’s office to be productive and waste no time commuting back and forth between the buildings,” Rutherford says.
The GSA initiated considered more than 40 potential locations before touring seven buildings and then narrowing it down to four final buildings. Wells Fargo Plaza stood out because of its location, which is two blocks from the federal court building, along with its access to the downtown tunnel system and its 25,000-square-foot floorplates.
“The building is a short walk to the federal courts, and when it’s really hot or raining, the lawyers can use the tunnel to get there,” Rutherford says, adding that Wells Fargo Plaza is also a “straight shot” by cab if necessary.
Built in 1983, Wells Fargo Plaza is a 71-story office building situated in west/central downtown Houston. It is the largest multi-tenant building in the southwestern U.S. and offers a full-service bank branch and valet parking for all visitors.
The U.S. Attorney’s office will occupy floors 23 thru 27. The space, which had primarily been occupied by Dynegy, has been vacant for more than 12 months.
With the GSA lease, Wells Fargo Plaza is 95% occupied. It currently houses five of the city’s largest 25 law firms. The asking rate for the building is $29 per square foot, triple net.
Based on its April 2010 lease inventory, the GSA leases more than 1.3 million square feet of commercial real estate space in Houston. According to Jones Lang LaSalle’s 2010 U.S. Federal Government Perspective, Texas posted the largest change among all states in office rentable building area (RBA) from 2008 to mid-2009, representing 17.1% of the GSA’s RBA growth for that period.
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