HOUSTON-Mention the Houston office market and what comes to mind are the booming west Houston region known as the Energy Corridor and the furthest north submarket – The Woodlands. These two areas are being characterized by increasingly tightening office vacancies, higher rents and (in the case of the Energy Corridor) a lot of construction.
But there are other submarkets in Houston – many that are not as well-known – that are making a push for tenants as well. One of these, Greenspoint, has been shedding its image of high crime and large vacancies to attract office tenants to its buildings.
Bounded by Hardy Toll Road, Airtex Boulevard, Veterans Memorial Drive and West Road to the east, north, west and south respectively, the Greenspoint submarket (also known as North Belt) is directly south of its booming northern neighbor, The Woodlands. Developed in the late 1980s by ExxonMobil subsidiary Friendswood Development Co., the submarket is in very close proximity to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport and has direct access to Interstate 45 and Beltway 8 (also known as the Sam Houston Tollway).
With its excellent infrastructure comes available space – Transwestern affiliate Delta Associates reports that, during Q2 2013, Greenspoint had a class A inventory of 4.6 million square feet and an 8.5% vacancy. Meanwhile, out of the inventory of 7.4 million square feet, the class B space carried an 18.6% vacancy. Asking rents are also lower than those in The Woodlands and Energy Corridor submarkets. Delta Associates reports that tenants wanting class A space on the Katy Freeway (Energy Cooridor) will end up paying an average of $25.31 per square foot, while being asked to shell out $22.76 per square feet in The Woodlands. In Greenspoint, comparable space goes for an average ask of $20.49.
Given its great infrastructure and reasonable rates, the question is why more tenants aren’t eying Greenspoint as place in which to office.
