Second Largest Lease Completed in Downtown Houston

Houston Pavilions, the first downtown mixed-use development of its kind in Houston in 20 years, announced that NRG Texas and its retail business Reliant Energy have executed a long-term lease at Pavilions Tower. With the completion of the NRG lease, the second largest lease to be completed within the last year in downtown Houston, the office section of the project is now completely leased. NRG will take occupancy in March 2011.

“Even in the best of economic times, it’s not often that a 240,000-square-foot tenant comes along,” said Geoff Jones, co-developer/principal of Houston Pavilions, who observed that the leasing pace was proceeding along nicely. “In fact,” he added, “we were outpacing our projections for 2009. With the signing of the NRG lease, the occupancy of the project has hit roughly 80 percent, a level we hadn’t expected to achieve until 2010. We went from having a good year to having a great one.” The Pavilions will include other dining and entertainment tenants who plan to open before the end of this year.

Commenting on the deal, Eric Anderson, senior vice president at Transwestern, a commercial real estate and development firm that represented the landlord in this deal, said: “Ultimately, the unique strengths of Houston Pavilions were an absolute match to meet NRG’s requirements.” He cited the restaurants, amenities, location off the main rail system, as well as a covered connecting parking garage, as contributing “to this match.”

Houston Pavilions spans four city blocks. The retail/entertainment center is 320,000 square feet, office space is 240,000 square feet, and the parking garage has 1,600 spaces.