A Houston-based company has acquired a vacant office building in the West Belt submarket, an area known for high office vacancy rates.
U.S. Property Management purchased the 225,000-square-foot building at 4646 West Sam Houston Parkway North. JLL represented the seller, Connecticut-based insurer RVI Group, in the transaction. The sale price was not disclosed. Appraisal district records show that the property’s taxable value dropped significantly this year to $9.7 million from $35.6 million last year.
The building has been empty since November of last year after SLB, an offshore drilling company, moved out. It is currently being marketed as “an HQ-style building.”
Built in 2001, the nine-story property is located within Westway Park, a 150-acre business complex developed by Wolff Companies. Other tenants in the park include General Electric Oil & Gas, Travelers, and Schneider Electric.
Westway Park is situated in Houston’s West Belt submarket and offers access to major highways including Beltway 8, Interstate 10, and U.S. Highway 290.
The local office market continues to face high vacancy rates, with older buildings being especially affected as they become less desirable for tenants. Data from Partners Real Estate shows that at the end of the first quarter, properties built before 2009 had a vacancy rate of 27.5 percent compared to 14.9 percent for newer properties (https://www.partnersrealestate.com/). In the second quarter, Partners reported that office vacancies in West Belt reached 31.8 percent—above Houston’s overall average of 26.2 percent (https://www.partnersrealestate.com/).
U.S. Property Management owns several other properties including Lyric Tower downtown (380,000 square feet), a medical center office (130,000 square feet), a Hilton hotel near the Medical Center, and a resort on Turneffe Island off Belize.
