Intellicenter Lands 10-Year Inaugural Lease

St. Paul Travelers will take possession of 4650 Westway Park Blvd. in July 2007 to complete tenant upgrades for a lease that officially kicks in March 1, 2008. The standard quote for the submarket's class A space is $23 per sf, gross. Although the deal's financials aren't available, Mark Cashman, senior vice president for Dallas-based Koll Development Co., says lease rates were right in line with the market. Koll was represented by Phil Arnett and Kyle Kelley with CB Richard Ellis in Houston.

The Intellicenter building came along just at the right time. "Basically, St. Paul had a number of locations in the Houston area as a result of mergers completed over the past five years," says Tom Maloney, a Staubach Co. executive vice president in Walnut Creek, CA. Maloney, who represented the tenant with David Bale in Staubach's Houston office, says St. Paul Travelers has at least four locations in the metro so the objective was to get the teams under one roof to improve inter-office communication and increase operating efficiencies.

"Buildings in the Westchase area and along Clay Road made the short list," Maloney tells GlobeSt.com. "Intellicenter had an efficient floor plate which enabled us to increase efficiencies and decrease the amount of space we needed to lease." He adds that another plus is the parking ratio for the 900 employees who will be housed in the Intellicenter building, tucked into locally based Wolff Cos.' 150-acre Westway Park.

"We're absolutely psyched for a phase II development in Houston," Cash says. He tells GlobeSt.com that the team's studying half dozen sites in the area and plans to make an announcement by the end of Q1 2007.

The Intellicenter program is a joint venture between Koll and Prudential Real Estate Services. The spec buildings range from 150,000 sf to 200,000 sf, with development costs of $20 million to $25 million. Buildings in Fort Mill, SC, Atlanta and Dallas are under construction. The plan is to have five more Intellicenter buildings coming out of the ground by the end of next year.