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Westlake 3: Office Tower Conversion To Apartments At 550 Westlake Park Blvd.


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Crescent Sells Houston Office Property

Gain and Promoted Interest Realized

FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 2006--Crescent Real Estate Equities Company (NYSE:CEI) announced today that it has sold Three Westlake Park, a 414,792 square-foot office property in Houston, TX, in which Crescent owned a 20% stake in a joint venture with a pension fund. The office property was sold for $87.3 million, or $210 per square foot.

Crescent expects to recognize in net income a gain on the sale of approximately $17 million. Included in this gain is approximately $7 million, which is attributable to Crescent's promoted interest and will be recognized in funds from operations, as adjusted ("FFO, as adjusted") as of December 31, 2006.

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  • The title was changed to Three Westlake Park
  • 1 year later...

https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/office/energy-corridor-office-high-rise-scheduled-to-be-sold-at-foreclosure-auction-120631

"The foreclosure action isn't the only trouble Westlake Park buildings have encountered in recent years. Three Westlake Park was transferred to special servicing in October 2018 and became real estate-owned in July 2019, Bisnow previously reported. BP had occupied more than 40% of that property, but it vacated in 2015. The building completely emptied out when ConocoPhillips’ lease expired in 2019.

Three Westlake sold at a $67.4M loss in early 2022 after sitting vacant throughout most of the pandemic."

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  • The title was changed to Three Westlake Park: Office Tower At 550 Westlake Park Blvd.
  • 3 months later...

"Houston’s Energy Corridor into a 311-unit apartment building, adding to a growing trend of office to residential conversions taking place across the country.

Florida firm DeBartolo Development is teaming up with local investor John Quinlan to convert Three Westlake, a 19-story office tower known as 550 Westlake Park Boulevard. Quinlan bought the vacant tower in 2022 at an online auction for $21 million and in 2023 sold the tower to a joint venture he struck between his firm and DeBartolo."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/energy-corridor-office-conversion-apartment-18638222.php

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https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/550-Westlake-Park-Blvd-Houston-TX/26408923/

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  • The title was changed to Three Westlake Park: Office Tower At 550 Westlake Park Blvd. Conversion To Apartments
  • The title was changed to Westlake 3: Office Tower Conversion To Apartments At 550 Westlake Park Blvd.
  • 2 weeks later...

Why more Houston offices aren't being converted to housing (houstonchronicle.com)

"Quinlan, in partnership with DeBartolo, has begun work on Three Westlake, a 311-unit apartment conversion of the 19-story former BP tower in the Energy Corridor. Quinlan bought the property for $21 million, after the lender took a a $67.4 million loss on the loan, he said. 

There weren’t a lot of lenders active in the market, said Ed Kobel, president of DeBartolo, but the firm found a bank willing to provide a construction loan.

“It was super hard, but the project is so compelling, we got it done,” Kobel said. "

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/21/2024 at 7:55 AM, ChannelTwoNews said:

Why more Houston offices aren't being converted to housing (houstonchronicle.com)

"Quinlan, in partnership with DeBartolo, has begun work on Three Westlake, a 311-unit apartment conversion of the 19-story former BP tower in the Energy Corridor. Quinlan bought the property for $21 million, after the lender took a a $67.4 million loss on the loan, he said. 

There weren’t a lot of lenders active in the market, said Ed Kobel, president of DeBartolo, but the firm found a bank willing to provide a construction loan.

“It was super hard, but the project is so compelling, we got it done,” Kobel said. "

I thought this was a really weird article when I read it.  It basically parrots the greenfield real estate development lobby's assertion that it costs too much to convert office buildings to residences.  I think blanket statements like that are silly because each building is different.

Quote

with the revenue they could expect from rents, said Brooks Howell, principal at global architecture firm Gensler’s Houston office, who has worked on several conversion project proposals around the country. And in almost every project, Howell says, the expected income won’t cover the initial costs. 

I really respect Gensler, but this doesn't line up with reality.  There's a successful office → residential conversion literally two blocks away from Howell's office.   

An uncharitable interpretation of the quotation is that perhaps Gensler's Houston office is simply not up to the challenge, since so many other firms around the world are doing this very successfully.

Across America, there are already many hundreds, if not thousands of office buildings that have been converted into residences.  It's not a new trend.  In 2003 I lived in a 25-story 1925 skyscraper that was converted to residences in the 1980's.  And there were a dozen others in the neighborhood.

Even in Houston, this isn't something new or exotic.  There's at least half-a-dozen of them downtown, both new and old conversions.

Yes, it can be hard.  But it's not universally hard, as professed by people who make money from plowing under the prairie to build bland beige bungalows out to the horizon.  

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