Business Feb. 9, 2007, 12:34AM Occupancy downtown rises Deloitte & Touche to take up a chunk of space in Heritage Plaza By NANCY SARNOFF Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Print Subscribe NOW Deloitte & Touche USA has leased 300,000 square feet of office space in Heritage Plaza, soaking up an increasingly limited supply of downtown space. The 10-floor move will allow the company to consolidate two existing offices and add almost half as much space to accommodate an expansion from a recent uptick in business. "The growth of the Houston economy is one of the main reasons for our growth," said Jerry Bennett, a Deloitte spokesman. "We mirror what goes on in the economy." Like Deloitte, whose local tax, audit and consulting business is closely aligned with the energy industry, other downtown businesses benefiting from the sector are gobbling up office space at a rate that hasn't been seen since Enron's heyday. The downtown office market had a banner year in 2006, with energy companies, law firms and architects leasing or expanding into space in the central business district. More than half of the new leases were from energy companies, including BP, Cheniere Energy, Enbridge and Total Petrochemicals. The most notable move was by Chevron, which leased the 1.3 million-square-foot glass tower at 1400 Smith that housed Enron before its collapse in 2001. The deal pushed the oil giant's downtown office occupancy to 2.9 million square feet of space. "Everyone's benefiting from the profitability in the energy industry right now," said Stewart Robinson, principal of commercial real estate firm Conine & Robinson. In the fourth quarter of last year, the downtown market posted the most significant decrease in vacancy rates among the city's office submarkets with a 3.2 percent drop from the previous quarter to 12.5 percent, according to real estate firm CB Richard Ellis. For the area's best buildings, vacancies fell to 10 percent. Rental rates have risen from the increased demand and rising operating expenses, the company said. more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headli...iz/4539237.html