Bank of America ready to move into new namesake office tower.
Downtown’s newest office building has a new name: Bank of America Tower.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank is preparing to consolidate three downtown offices to 210,000 square feet in the 35story tower at 800 Capitol. The state-of-the art building will bring more than 600 employees in B of A’s Merrill Lynch, U.S. Trust, Global Banking & Markets, Retail and Home Loans teams under one roof.
Originally called Capitol Tower, the 754,000-square-foot, glass-clad building is developed and owned by Skanska.
The bank’s new home is a block away from its longtime home at Bank of America Center at 700 Louisiana. It will move out of that building in early June and vacate its offices at at 600 Travis and 1221 McKinney by early August.
The office portion of the building sits atop an 11-story garage, and Bank of America will occupy floors 14 through 20 in offices designed to reflect Houston. The walls near the elevators on each floor feature a different Houston bayou and the conference rooms have Texas names.
The office will have a mix of open and closed areas, depending on the line of business and the need for clients’ privacy, said Houston Market President Hong Ogle.
Rick Jamarillo, senior vice president and the Houston market executive, will have a corner office on the 14th floor that will provide meeting space for collaborating with his team.
The Gensler-designed building showcases the latest in efficiency and design, and ushers in a first for downtown retail. The tunnellevel retail will be visible from the street along Milam and will be open in the evenings and on weekends. It’s expected to draw business from building tenants as well as downtown visitors and theater-goers.
Understory, a 35,000-squarefoot community hub and culinary market designed by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, opens next month. It will connect the tunnel with the street level by a 30-foot-wide staircase and gathering place called the Great Steps. The tunnel level has a gym for building tenants, and high-speed Wi-Fi and mobile device charging stations will be available.
Among the sustainable features, the 12th floor, on which Skanska will take 12,000 square feet, has a 24,000-square-foot sky park for tenants. The green roof is part of a plan to retain all rainwater on-site for use in watering plants and flushing toilets and to help cool the environment. The building has an arbor patterned after Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University, a winding path of hardwood planks and plants similar to those along Buffalo Bayou.
“Butterflies and bees are already using it,” said Skanska’s Sean Murphy, who worked with OJB Landscape Architecture on the design.
To get to the rooftop garden, building tenants walk through a shared amenity area with modern decor called The Assembly, a 10,000-square-foot conference and events center with several different meeting areas.
The building also has places for bike storage and showers and lockers for those who bike to work. The location near Metro Rail lines is part of the sustainability in the building, where 90 percent of occupants have access to daylight.
Bank of America Tower is 88 percent leased, with a roster of tenants that also includes Waste Management (284,000 square feet), international law firm Winston and Strawn (62,515) and Quantum Energy Partners (32,000).
The completion comes as downtown’s office vacancy rate stood at 16.1 percent in the first quarter, according to CBRE. That compares with 19 percent for the Houston area overall.
The last new downtown building opened two years ago. Hines’ 609 Main at Texas building, rising 48 stories with 1.1 million square feet, is 86 percent leased.
Bank of America Tower is near Texas Tower, a 47-story building being developed by Hines and Ivanhoé Cambridge on Texas Avenue. That building, set for completion in late 2021, landed Vinson & Elkins law firm and Hines as anchor tenants.
Even though there’s a lot of empty office space downtown, developers continue to add buildings to meet demand from companies seeking the latest amenities, including on-site gyms and gathering areas, to attract and retain employees.
“There is a flight to quality,” said Robert Ward, chief executive of Skanska USA Commercial Development. “There are tenants in the market that want a different product. If you can provide that, you can be, despite the vacancy, pretty successful.”