Texas

HOUSTON — WorleyParsons Group has signed a long-term lease for 141,000 square feet at Energy Center II, a 12-story, 305,000-square-foot, Class A office building located in Houston. The company will occupy the top five floors of the building, as well as have a reception area and conference facilities on the ground floor. The space will be used as the company’s U.S. corporate headquarters and for the consolidation of its Houston upstream oil and gas operations. WorleyParsons Group was represented in lease negotiations by Lou Cushman and Courtney Estenson of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas. The owner, a joint venture between Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. and Principal Real Estate Investors, was represented by Steve Rocher of CB Richard Ellis. Energy Center II was completed this month. It features a fitness center, a deli and structure parking. It is in the process of applying for LEED-Gold certification. It sits adjacent to Energy Center I, the first phase of the project that was completed in January 2008. Energy Center I is presently the largest speculative office building in Houston to receive LEED-Silver certification.

HOUSTON — Hess Corp. has signed a long-term lease to occupy all of Discovery Tower, a high-rise office tower under construction at 1501 McKinney St. in downtown Houston. The project, which is being developed by a joint venture between Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. and Principal Real Estate, has been under construction since March 2008. Given the early stage of construction, the tower is being customized to accommodate Hess Corp. It will rise 29 stories and total 844,763 square feet. Other features, such as floor plate sizes and ceiling heights, are also being customized. The project, which has been renamed Hess Tower, is applying for LEED-Gold certification and, upon receiving the designation, will be the first LEED-Gold office building in Houston’s central business district. Completion is scheduled for summer 2010. Hess Corp. will relocate from its current offices in Houston’s Allen Center to Hess Tower in 2011. Hess Corp. was represented in lease negotiations by Tim Relyea of Cushman & Wakefield. Trammell Crow and Principal were represented by John Pruitt and Cody Armbrister of CB Richard Ellis.

IRVING, TEXAS — An affiliate of Research in Motion has acquired Riverside Commons, a six-building, 460,297-square-foot office campus located in the Las Colinas submarket of Irving. Constructed in 1986, the campus comprises 13 acres in a park-like setting. It recently underwent a $5.7 million renovation and repositioning campaign. Occupancy was 86 percent at the time of closing. The largest tenant presently at Riverside Commons is Sprint Nextel Corp., which occupies 211,315 square feet. Research in Motion had previously occupied 134,177 square feet at the property, which it was using as its company headquarters. Research in Motion was represented by Pat O’Keefe of CB Richard Ellis’ Dallas office; Gary Carr and Eric Mackey, also of the firm’s Dallas office, represented the seller, Dallas-based Westmount Realty Capital. The acquisition price was not disclosed. Research in Motion is most known as the maker of the Blackberry mobile device.