Claremont Property Company is doubling down on a strategy to keep tenants coming, while its lender fights to foreclose.
Claremont is converting another floor of its Central Square office tower into modular spec suites, as it leans into a flexible leasing strategy that has helped buoy the building’s performance, the Houston Business Journal reported.
Meanwhile, the landlord is locked in a financial dispute with Wells Fargo. Claremont’s $33.5 million CMBS loan from the lender was transferred to special servicing last year.
The Bellaire-based firm plans to invest $850,000 to redevelop the 11th floor of the 14-story, 269,800-square-foot building at 2100 Travis Street in Houston’s Midtown neighborhood, according to a project filing. The renovation will reconfigure 22,000 square feet into customizable office suites designed for small tenants.
The move builds on Claremont’s broader post-pandemic strategy to reposition full floors of Central Square into modular layouts.
“Big office footprints were losing appeal,” said Juliet Garcia, senior property manager at Claremont. Demand for spaces between 750 and 2,000 square feet began surging in 2021, she said. The company has transformed four other floors in the building using this approach.
Spec suites offer a middle ground between coworking and traditional leases. At Central Square, they come with private mailboxes, suite numbers and access to shared perks like conference rooms and break areas. Garcia said the third floor was nearly fully leased before construction finished and that some tenants have scaled up into thousands of square feet elsewhere in the building.
Wells Fargo alleged a non-monetary default tied to the property’s cash-management plan following a footprint reduction by anchor tenant City of Houston. Claremont sued to block a foreclosure auction in January, but a federal judge later allowed proceedings to resume. The two sides reached an interim loan modification agreement in May.
Garcia said the 20,000 square feet vacated by the city has since been more than backfilled, much of it by tenants attracted to the spec suite model.
Central Square isn’t the only Houston office adopting the tactic. JMB Realty has filled most of its spec suites at 1001 Fannin downtown and is building out more.
— Judah Duke
Read more
Fort Worth firm nabs office in Houston’s hot Westchase district
Autry Park adds office building as Houston pipeline thins out
Midway expanding Post Oak office campus into retail playground
