Office tower planned near Discovery Green
Skanska, developer of downtown's Bank of America Tower, is planning a 28-story office building adjacent to Discovery Green.
The 375,000-square-foot office building at 1550 Lamar St. will be anchored by the Houston office of Norton Rose Fulbright, the third-largest law firm in America.
Norton Rose Fulbright, which has signed a long-term lease agreement, expects to relocate to the new office building in 2024, when it will acquire naming rights to the tower.
Until then, Skanska is calling the development 1550 on the Green.
The Swedish development and construction giant acquired a 3.5 acre site, of which 1550 Lamar is a part, for $55 million in October 2019.
The acquisition included the full city block just east of the Four Seasons Hotel, bordered by Dallas, Lamar, LaBranch and Austin, as well as the property just to the east of the block, surrounding the Embassy Suites Hotel, and property
just to the south.
Skanska is planning a three-block master plan for the area featuring apartments, restaurants, retail and green space in addition to the office tower.
The office project, which is being designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, will feature treelined pedestrian zones and two roof terraces dedicated to tenants on the 12th and 20th floors.
The building will have 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
Much of the lobby will be touchless, with hands-free security turnstiles and appbased guest registration.
The building was announced at a time when Houston-area office vacancies were at 22 percent, according to the commercial real estate company CBRE, and while it will take a few years to complete, it is unclear how much those statistics will change.
Over the past several years, the vacancy rate has hovered around 20 percent, and the fallout from the pandemic is expected to reshape how businesses approach office use.