Houston’s economy is sailing along well above almost every other US city.  If you live and work in Houston, this is great.  Unless however, you own a business in Houston and need to purchase a freestanding office building or lease a large block of space.  Well located, quality big block office space for lease and/or office buildings for sale with large vacancy available to users are becoming more and more rare.

Centermark Commercial Real Estate just completed a survey of available 18,000 SF to 60,000 SF freestanding office buildings for sale and the same square footages for lease.  Both lease and sale studies were completed for the West Houston area near Beltway 8, up to the Highway 290 area along the Beltway and down to 59 South.  Surpisingly, there were very few options and most had issues with high crime locations, functional obslecnece or unrealistic pricing.

So what is the answer?  New construction of user buildings?  Unlikely.  The land in these desired locations is too expensive to justify speculative office development whose target market are owners looking for B/C office for sale or lease.  Actually, new construction of office space to sale or lease is too expensive period to achieve market rates in the B/C range.

The result of this tightening of the market will eventually be increased rental rates and/or a requirement of owners to broaden their geographic parameters and/or criteria.

If you are considering leasing office space or purchasing, contact Eric Hughes at Centermark Commercial Real Estate – 713.461.4750.  Broker.