Satterfield & Pontikes Sells HQ to Seligman

The construction firm will continue to occupy about 20,000 sf in a long-term lease with the new owner. Superior Energy Services, Link Project Services Inc. and Frac Tech Services Ltd. lease the remainder of the building at 11000 Equity Dr., which is situated in the 150-acre Westway Park in northwest Houston.

"This was a speculative building from the start," says John Marshall, Satterfield & Pontikes' vice president. "We needed the room, certainly, for our own business and headquarters." The building also provided a good hands-on laboratory to see how sustainability could work in an office environment. "It was a perfect situation to see if a building like that was all we thought it could be," he explains. "It was also an attractive building for potential owners to come and take a look at." Harris Central Appraisal District has the asset and four-acre tract assessed at $9.6 million.

Marshall tells GlobeSt.com that the goal was to lease up the building and hold it. "But suitors came to us and asked if we'd be interested in selling," he continues. "What building owner would say 'absolutely not' to that?"

Satterfield & Pontikes struck an agreement with Seligman with help from CB Richard Ellis' first vice president Ron McWherter. Marshall says Seligman's portfolio of unique buildings and the comfort with the buyer made them comfortable with the deal. "We have a lot of regard for that building and a lot of equity in it and it would be a little hard to let it go if it was going to a run of the mill-type of portfolio," he says.

In addition to the equity from the sale, Satterfield & Pontikes received something more from the building. "We were absolutely able to leverage our experience in this building to our other projects," Marshall says. "We probably learned more about this building than we thought we would in our wildest dreams. By going out and pushing toward the areas of technology and sustainability a couple of years ago, we're now nicely positioned in the market."