Invesco Group Services Inc. has called Eleven Greenway Plaza at Houston’s landmark Greenway Plaza office campus home for more than four decades and the global investment management firm will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Invesco has recently renewed its commitment at the approximately 745,900-square-foot tower, having inked a long-term lease extension with Parkway Property Investments LLC for more than 180,200 square feet of space.
An international concern like Invesco has options aplenty when it comes to securing office space, whether it’s a tenants’ market or not. So, the company’s decision to maintain Eleven Greenway as its local base of operations “feels like validation” to Parkway, Eric Siegrist, Parkway Property Investments LLC’s managing director of leasing, noted in a prepared statement.
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Located between downtown and Uptown, Greenway Plaza is a 52-acre office park that encompasses 11 buildings totaling nearly 5 million square feet of Class A office space. The complex was a trailblazer when it debuted decades ago, setting the tone for the mixed-use office destination in Houston, and it has maintained its luster through upgrades at the hands of different owners over the years.
Quite a history
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owns 75 percent of Greenway Plaza, having come into possession of a majority interest in the asset after acquiring Parkway Inc. in a $1.2 billion merger in October 2017. In April 2017, Parkway, then full owner of the campus, had sold a 24.5 percent stake in the property to a partnership between TH Real Estate (now Nuveen) and Sliverpeak Real Estate Partners, and another 24.5 percent stake to CPPIB, retaining the 51 percent interest for itself until the union with CPPIB. Following the merger, Parkway Property Investments emerged as a spinoff.
Eleven Greenway welcomed its first tenants in 1979. Designed by Lloyd Jones Brewer & Associates, the blue-glass skyscraper hovers 31 stories above masses of gathering spaces and pedestrian strolls that adorn the business park, which also offers such amenities as curated food & beverage outlets, a 150,000-square-foot branded fitness center and an accredited early education childcare facility.
Houston’s office market
Once upon a time, Invesco occupied more than half the office space at Eleven Greenway. Regardless of the company’s needs, it has been steadfast in its devotion to the property. However, had Invesco opted to relocate, now would have been a good time to find another space, as Houston’s struggle to return to its pre-pandemic health persists.
The overall metropolitan Houston office market availability—including current, sublease and future vacancy—went on a slight upswing in the second quarter, rising 0.2 percent to 29.6 percent, according to research from a second-quarter 2022 NAI Partners report. However, Invesco, perhaps, has already found what other office users are hoping to secure.
“Uncertainty continues to plague Houston’s office market, but flight-to-quality and enhanced amenities dominate,” according to the NAI Partners report.
