Hines Brings Law Firm to 1 MSF Trophy Tower

Huntington Center. Image courtesy of Hines

Hines’ $18 million renovation of Huntington Center, a trophy office tower in downtown Columbus, Ohio, continues to pay off, as the company successfully entices a leading national law firm to relocate to the 1 million-square-foot property. Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP will set up shop in approximately 50,000 square feet at the skyscraper under a new long-term lease agreement.

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Located at 41 S. High St. just across from the Ohio State Capitol, Huntington Center first opened its doors in 1984 as a development project of Hines. Taft notes in a prepared statement that the firm chose Huntington Center for its overall building quality and strong amenities, which will promote collaboration and bolster recruiting and retention efforts—and that is precisely what Hines and partners Carlton Associates and Lakestar Properties had in mind when they completed the sweeping renovation of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed property in 2019. The project is proving a timely endeavor as the world now adjusts to the new normal.

“Amenities are very important to employees in their return to the office,” Tyler Steele, general property manager with Hines, told Commercial Property Executive. “People are looking for safety and security in their offices. Best in class amenities create an environment where tenants can connect in person with service providers and other business leaders.”

Modern-day workplace

Hines and partners could not have known how prescient their renovation plan for Huntington Center would be when they secured $140 million in refinancing for the project through Morgan Stanley in 2016. The team tapped Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture to spearhead the 37-story high-rise’s massive upgrade, which centered on creating an ecosystem of amenities more likely to be found in a hotel lobby or high-end residential environment.

New additions to Huntington Center, which already featured 26,000 square feet of retail space and access to a nearly 30,000-square-foot fitness facility, included The Horizon, a 6,000-square-foot lounge featuring a bar, seating and flexible conference rooms on the previously vacant 36th floor, and an adjacent rooftop terrace.

The renovation also yielded a two-story indoor green wall—the largest in the U.S. at 2,400 square feet and with 8,500 individual plants—that graces the lobby, and a full-scale elevator modernization featuring a cutting-edge destination dispatch system. All told, Huntington Center provides three levels of amenity and dining options, as well as extra offerings accessible via a sky-bridge connection to the Doubletree Suites and the convenience of underground tunnel access to the Ohio Statehouse.

Positive signs

With Taft’s new commitment, Huntington Center’s leased occupancy rate is now slightly above the historical average, which makes the building a success in an office market that continues to struggle with the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the third quarter of 2021 produced encouraging indicators in metropolitan Columbus: Vacancy rates remained steady, average asking rates inched up by 5 cents and 80 percent of leases signed were new leases, according to a report by CBRE.

Downtown Columbus, specifically, is experiencing notable improvement. “The downtown Columbus office market is seeing some good activity,” Steele said. “Tenant interest is concentrated on buildings and locations with place-making amenities like retail and services that tenant employees find attractive.”

Taft is on track to relocate to its new space on three floors at Huntington Center from its current home just blocks away at 65 E. State St. in late 2022. The law firm relied on Jeff Carey of JLL for representation in the lease transaction, while Collin Wheeler and Brandon Ellis of CBRE stood in for Hines et al. Taft has a bit of history with Huntington Center, having played a role in the sale of a majority interest in the asset to Carlton Associates in 2012.