Calpine Center

Calpine Center
Calpine building, corner of Milam St. and Texas St.
Map
General information
TypeOffice
Location717 Texas Street, Houston, Texas
Coordinates29°45′42″N 95°21′51″W / 29.7616°N 95.3643°W / 29.7616; -95.3643
Completed2003
OpeningNovember 10, 2003
Height
Roof453 ft (138 m)
Technical details
Floor count33
Floor area791,135 sq ft (73,498.8 m2)[1]

The Calpine Center is a 453 ft (138m) tall postmodern skyscraper in Downtown Houston, Texas. The building has 33 floors of Class A office space.[2][3] The building has the world headquarters of Calpine Corporation.[4] Hines and Prime Asset Management jointly developed the building. The Houston office of HOK designed the building, and Turner Construction acted as the general contractor.[3] It is connected to the downtown tunnel system. Mark Russell of Studley, a real estate firm, said that the Calpine Center is more efficient than many of the tall office buildings built in Houston in the early 1980s.[5]

History

Originally Calpine intended to lease 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) of space. By February 2003 Calpine announced that it would sublease some of the space to other firms.[6] The Calpine Center was scheduled for completion at the end of 2003. In July 2003 the space was 82% booked for occupation. Calpine and Burlington Resources, another energy company, leased space in the building; each company agreed to lease 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2) of space. In addition Jones Day agreed to lease over 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2).[2] The building opened on Monday November 10, 2003. Other tenants that had occupied the building by its opening included Cheniere Energy Inc. and Hines's southwest region development office.[3] In 2004 Avalon Advisors LP agreed to lease 9,385 square feet (871.9 m2) of space in the building, bringing its occupancy level to 86%.[7]

Tower, with Houston Chronicle building seen at lower right
Street sign detail
Main entrance on Texas St.

See also

References

  1. ^ "717 Texas | Energy Star".
  2. ^ a b Bivins, Ralph. "SURVIVAL OF THE NEWEST / OCCUPANCY DOWNTOWN TUMBLING, BUT THREE TOWERS DEFY TREND." Houston Chronicle. Sunday July 27, 2003. Business 1. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c "Calpine Center opens in downtown Houston." Houston Business Journal. Monday November 10, 2003. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
  4. ^ "Contact Archived 2009-12-12 at the Wayback Machine." Calpine. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
  5. ^ Bivins, Ralph. "New towers won't touch `ego buildings' of past." Houston Chronicle. Sunday November 2, 2003. Business 8. Correction published on November 4, 2003. Retrieved on December 1, 2009.
  6. ^ Sarnoff, Nancy. "Calpine to put portion of downtown skyscraper on sublease market." Houston Business Journal. Friday February 7, 2003. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
  7. ^ Sarnoff, Nancy. "New lease hikes Calpine Center occupancy." Houston Business Journal. Wednesday March 3, 2004. Retrieved on November 10, 2009.