Howard Hughes Spends $565M in Houston

The Woodlands Towers at The Waterway. Image courtesy of The Howard Hughes Corp.

The Howard Hughes Corp. has acquired the former Anadarko Petroleum headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas, and the former ConocoPhillips campus in Houston’s Energy Corridor from Occidental Petroleum Corp. for $565 million. The portfolio totals roughly 2.7 million square feet of office space, also including a 125,000-square-foot warehouse and 9.3 acres of developable land in The Woodlands. The sale follows Occidental’s $55 billion acquisition of Anadarko, which closed in August 2019.

The two Class A towers in The Woodlands add up to 1.4 million square feet of office space and were previously known as Anadarko Allison Tower and Anadarko Hackett Tower. Howard Hughes has rebranded the properties as The Woodlands Towers at The Waterway, but Occidental will remain within the campus, having leased back the whole 808,000 square feet at 1201 Lake Robbins Tower, as well as the warehouse, for 13 years.

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Howard Hughes is also relocating its corporate headquarters at the 595,000-square-foot 9950 Woodloch Forest Drive, which opened in 2014. The move from Dallas comes after the company’s October 2019 reorganization, which brought a new CEO and the announcement of the headquarters relocation, albeit without an exact address.

Buy to sell

Located at 600 N. Dairy Ashford Road, the former ConocoPhillips campus in Houston’s Energy Corridor was Occidental’s previous headquarters choice, prior to the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum. The Howard Hughes Corp. plans to immediately remarket the 1.3 million-square-foot property, with a spokesperson telling The Houston Chronicle that the company agreed to acquire ConocoPhillips’ former base as a way to help its offer for the assets in The Woodlands stand out. According to data provider Yardi Matrix, the 60-acre campus was completed in 1981 and underwent cosmetic renovations in 2008.

A CBRE team including Executive Vice President Brandon Clarke, Senior Vice President Jared Chua and Vice Chairman Steve Hesse represented Occidental in the sale of the whole portfolio.