For Boeing, the purchase opens the opportunity to expand in atight office submarket while the Chicago-based Trizec gets toeliminate a suburban straggler in a Houston portfolio with morethan six million sf in seven CBD high rises. "We were regularlygetting calls from interested parties," a Trizec spokesman tellsGlobeSt.com about the sale of 3700 Bay Area Blvd. in Clear Lake,adjacent to the Johnson Space Center. "We started listeningseriously as we started to move the portfolio strategy ... tomarkets and submarkets where we have a presence with multipleproperties. We received a firm offer that we took to Boeing andthey acted on their right."

Boeing occupies about 640,000 sf of leased and owned space infive buildings in a four-mile radius surrounding the space center.The just-bought building and parking garage sit in the middle of 21acres. The site could accommodate another 250,000-sf officebuilding, says William Richard, Boeing's facilities manager inHouston. For now, he says the plan is to take over 30,000 sf ofempty space in the acquired structure, which has housed theheadquarters of Boeing's NASA Systems since its relocation fromCalifornia in 2001.

The 3700 Bay Area Blvd. building will remain multi-tenant atleast through the expiration of the in-place leases. Richard says adecision has not been made about any renewals since there is roomto expand and build, if necessary. Computer Sciences Corp., BaytekInternational, Teleport Communications Houston Inc. and EduNeeringInc. occupy a combined 60,000 sf.