Construction begins on 20-acre office project along Beltway 8

Photo by Stream Realty Partners

Real estate investment firm Liberty Property Trust broke ground Feb. 18 on the first of three buildings for a Class A office project at the southeast corner of Beltway 8 and Fallbrook Drive. The 20-acre project has been dubbed the Legacy at Fallbrook.

Legacy at Fallbrook is LPT's first foray into office space in the Houston area. The trust owns 6.5 million square feet of mostly industrial space in the area, including Greens Crossing IV and V, which were developed near Beltway 8 and I-45 at the end of 2013.

"We are very excited to announce the development of our first office building in Houston," said LPT's Jay Kraft, vice president and city manager for the Houston region. "This location is perfect for Class A office, offering high visibility and multiple access points to the Beltway."

The 5-story, 208,000-square-foot building—located at 10720 W. Sam Houston Parkway N.—is expected to open for occupancy in early 2015. Each floor will contain 41,600 square feet with 10-foot ceilings, and the building will connect with a parking garage. Other amenities include an outdoor seating area with landscaping and water features.

As a speculative project, LPT officials say they will wait to start construction on the site's second building until the first one is 75 percent leased. Stream Realty Partners has been tasked with leasing the building. Powers Brown Architecture was hired as the architect, and EE Reed Construction Company is the contractor.

The vacancy rate for Class A office space in the northwest submarket hovers around 5 percent, and undeveloped space is increasingly scarce. Steward Lyman, vice president of Stream Realty, said these factors make him confident in the new project's potential.

"We are confident that [LPT's] decision to go spec and beat competing proposed developments out of the ground will prove successful as we are able to capture demand that outweighs current supply in the submarket," Lyman said.