Houston Center

Texas Eastern Corporation bought 32 blocks of land in Downtown Houston for $50 million. Texas Eastern razed the existing buildings and proposed building Houston Center, a large office space development. Texas Eastern planned to build elevated walkways, people movers, and underground garages. Houston Center was one of the largest private development projects ever, however only a small portion of the plan was realized, leaving a large swath of downtown Houston covered in parking lots and vacant land. Panhandle Eastern Corporation acquired Houston Center when Texas Eastern was sold to Panhandle for $2.5 billion in stock in June 1989. Later that year Panhandle sold Houston Center to JMB Realty for $400 million; Panhandle planned to use the money from the sale to reduce its debt, which it accumulated from the merger. Panhandle planned to move out of the of office space that it occupied in Houston Center and move its operations and 1,300 employees at Houston Center to its corporate headquarters near the Uptown District. Panhandle planned to move in increments over a three-year period after 1989, with one third of its Houston Center workforce moving each year. In 2000 Crescent sold the Four Seasons Hotel Houston, a hotel that is a part of Houston Center, to Maritz, Wolff & Co., a hotel investment group, for $105 million. In October 2002 Houston Center was 95% leased. In 2004 Crescent attempted to sell a 50% equity position in both Greenway Plaza and Houston Center. During that year the Class A office space in the entire complex was 94% leased. In September 2017 Houston Center's offices were 75% leased and its retail area was 70% leased. In December of that year Brookfield Property Partners finalized plans to buy the center. ==LyondellBasell Tower==

Opened in 1978, this building, originally called 1 Houston Center, has 46 floors with Class A office space and is located at 1200 block of McKinney Street. The building is 678 feet (207 m) tall. LyondellBasell maintained its Houston offices at 1 Houston Center until March 2025, when the company relocated its corporate headquarters to Williams Tower, situated in the Uptown District of Houston. When Lyondell was an independent company, its headquarters were in 1 Houston Center. As of January 2012, the Lyondell/LyondellBasell operation has been at 1 Houston Center for 25 years. In 1999 Merrill Lynch Capital Markets expanded its lease to . In 2000 Ernst & Young occupied of space on five floors in 1 Houston Center. When 5 Houston Center opened in 2003, Ernst & Young pulled its operations from 1 Houston Center and moved them into 5 Houston Center, leaving of space in 1 Houston Center vacant. Two of the five floors that Ernst & Young left behind were leased to other firms by July 2003. Cozen O'Connor opened an office in 1 Houston Center in 2004. On November 22, 2005, Alain Robert, a French rock and urban climber nicknamed "Spider-Man", was arrested attempting to climb the building. In 2008 the law firm Fish & Richardson opened an office in 1 Houston Center on October 1, 2008. As of 2010 Haynes and Boone has an office in 1 Houston Center. As of January 2012, the tower was given its current name, the LyondellBasell Tower. Around that time, LyondellBasell renewed its lease for of space in 1 Houston Center. ==2 Houston Center==

Opened in 1974, this building has 40 floors with Class A office space. It is the 19th tallest building in the city. It was planned to be the center of a master-planned "city within a city" that would have included a tram system that would have tied in with Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 and run into the tower itself, and a four-story 40,000 car parking garage. It currently has six levels of parking for 495 cars. Several levels of this building extend across Fannin Street and connect to 1 Houston Center. They include a x bracing where the tramway would have been and a patio. It sits on top of Houston's six-mile (10 km) tunnel system. In 1999 former Mayor of Houston Bob Lanier moved the office of his real estate company to 2 Houston Center. Landar Corporation, Lanier's company, leased in 2 Houston Center. In July 2007, a fire was set in the northeast corner of the 16th floor of the building. In 2008 Crescent and the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund worked together for 10 weeks to cost-effectively upgrade 2 Houston Center. As a result, Crescent will install new lighting, mechanical, and office equipment systems that will reduce the building's total electricity usage by 11%. The new systems may save Crescent and the tenants of 2 Houston Center $400,000 combined each year, and carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by over 1,300 tons per year. Crescent plans to reduce 2 Houston Center's electricity usage by 20% over a 10-year period beginning in 2008. The company anticipates that the reduction will save the company $700,000 per year. In 2009 McJunkin Red Man Corporation expanded its lease in 2 Houston Center to of space. In July 2011 the USPS announced that the post office may close. The Houston Downtown Management District is headquartered in Suite 1650. The Consulate-General of Japan in Houston is located in Suite 3000. The lobby of 2 Houston Center was used as a filming location for The Swarm back in 1978. ==4 Houston Center==

4 Houston Center is a office building. In 2001 the building was 97% leased. The lower levels of 4 Houston Center have the Shops at Houston Center. In 2001 RWE Trading Americas leased of space in 4 Houston Center for its United States headquarters. The firm had the option to lease an additional of space in the following 18 months. Candace Baggett, the president of the real estate firm Calibre Group, said that the building is attractive to firms which need space for energy trading firms since the building has broad floors, each with over of space. Energy trading companies typically have wide-open trading floors. Many office buildings have half of the amount of space per floor that 5 Houston Center has. Marian Livingston of Calibre said that in 2001 it was difficult for an energy firm to find a large block of vacant space in Downtown Houston because of the tight market. Calibre represented RWE in the lease. ==5 Houston Center==

5 Houston Center, a 27-story tower, has Class A Office space. Each floor of the tower has of space. When the building opened, every floor had broadband internet capability. The tower was worth $117 million in 2002. The occupancy rate at 5 Houston Center became 80% after Halliburton signed the lease agreement. By 2009 the Halliburton headquarters had moved. ==Fulbright Tower==

The Fulbright Tower is a 52-story skyscraper originally known as 3 Houston Center. The tower has of Class A office space. The building at one point was owned by ChevronTexaco. As of 2005 Crescent owns the tower in a joint venture with the affiliates of GE Asset Management and JPMorgan Asset Management. Construction on the tower was scheduled to begin in November 1980. The tower property was developed in 1985. Fulbright & Jaworski became a tenant during that year. Chevron became the building's main tenant, and its name became the Chevron Tower. Fulbright & Jaworski renegotiated and extended its lease in 2003 and retained the possibility of naming rights; as of 2005 the firm occupies of space. In 2009 Conway MacKenzie leased at the Fulbright Tower. ==Proposed additions==

Crescent proposed the building of 6 Houston Center in the 2000s. As of 2009 the plans did not materialize. ==The Shops at Houston Center==

As of 2010 4 Houston Center's Shops at Houston Center has over 35 specialty retailers and 30 restaurants; as of the same year 14,000 people per day shop at the Shops at Houston Center. The Houston Chronicle said that the shops are "a haven for the lunch-hour shopping fix." In 2003 a major renovation by Development Design Group of Baltimore was enacted. Retail operations at The Shops at Houston Center include: • 1 Houston Center: 1221 McKinney Street • P3 Level: Kelsey-Seybold Clinic (Suite 300) • ChevronTexaco Credit Union (Suite 469) • 2 Houston Center: 909 Fannin Street • Bank of America (Suite 2) • 4 Houston Center: 1200 McKinney Street • Jos. A. Bank (Suite 105) • T-Mobile (Suite 305) • Subway (Suite 343) • Chick-fil-A (Suite 363) • Great American Cookies (Suite 369) • Starbucks (Suites 373 and 496) • Dressbarn (Suite 395) • Quiznos (Suite 402) • General Nutrition Centers (Suite 421) • Starship Hallmark Cards (Suite 429) • Chase (Suite 433) • Potbelly Sandwich Works In 2010 Kelsey-Seybold Clinic stated that it would move from its original location at 1 Houston Center to the Shops at Houston Center at 4 Houston Center. Kelsey-Seybold will take of space and will house an imaging center, a clinical laboratory, a pharmacy, and primary care and specialty physicians. The construction of the center was scheduled to begin in July 2010, and completion was scheduled to occur in December 2010. The Kelsey Seybold in 1 Houston Center has . Nicholas Ro, Kelsey-Seybold's vice president of strategic and legal affairs, said that if a customer walked into the lobby of 1 Houston Center, he or she would be unable to see the original clinic. Ro said that the clinic will move to gain a more visible location. Waldenbooks, formerly in Suite 399 in the Shops at Houston Center, Continental Airlines had a ticketing office at the Park Shops until 2004, when it announced that the office would close. At one time American Express Travel had a shop at the Park Shops. In 1995 the complex held the "Park Shops Holiday Trolley Tour" which traveled to several sites in Downtown with no admission cost. ==Gallery==

File:5HoustonCenterParking.JPG|5 Houston Center parking File:JapanConsulateHoustonTX.JPG|Consulate-General of Japan in Houston in Suite 3000 in 2 Houston Center == See also ==