Shared from the 7/12/2022 Houston Chronicle eEdition

Bechtel to leave 40-year home in Galleria

Engineering firm will relocate to Westchase

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Courtesy Parkway Property

Bechtel, a major engineering, construction and procurement firm, is relocating its Houston offices into CityWestPlace in the Westchase area.

Engineering and construction giant Bechtel is moving its Houston offices from the Galleria after more than 40 years in one of the largest office deals in the region this year.

Bechtel plans to relocate its 1,500 employees by the end of 2023 to the Westchase area about 8.6 miles west of its longtime home at 3000 Post Oak, the company confirmed.

The project management, construction and engineering firm recently signed a 205,000 square-foot office lease in Parkway Property’s CityWestPlace campus in Building 3, according to CBRE, which represented Bechtel in lease negotiations.

Bechtel’s new digs are about half the size of its 440,00 square-foot office space in Houston, according to real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. The move comes after Bechtel earlier this year implemented a hybrid workplace policy allowing some employees to work remotely at least part of the time and commute to the office based on teams’ individual needs.

“The decision to relocate is driven by the needs of our employees, our customers, and the community we serve,” Paul Marsden, president of Bechtel’s energy division, said in a statement. “(CityWestPlace) also has the space, technologies and facilities necessary to support our growing business, and the needs of our employees as we embrace flexible working as the way that we do business.”

While Bechtel has projects all over the globe, the Virginia-based company is particularly active in the Gulf Coast region. Earlier this year, Bechtel announced it is working with Cheniere Energy to build a major expansion of a liquefied natural gas plant in Corpus Christi.

It’s also helping to construct Tellurian’s $16.8 billion Driftwood LNG processing and export plant in Lake Charles, La. And last year, Bechtel was selected by Advanced Power to complete the construction, engineering and procurement work tied to the Cutlass Solar Project in Fort Bend County, a solar project expected to add enough power for 15,000 homes, according to Bechtel.

Marsden also noted that Bechtel’s move will place the company in an energy efficient office. The nine-story building is within CityWestPlace, a 35-acre campus near Sam Houston Tollway that has received Energy Star label and a LEED Gold ranking on the U.S. Green Building Council’s building sustainability ranking system.

The pedestrian-friendly campus features outdoor spaces, a bike share program, e-waste recycling, annual air quality testing and a green cleaning policy, according to the website for the campus.

The deal is among the largest new leases signed in 2022 and follows other big leasing deals by pipeline company Enbridge in the Energy Corridor and liquefied natural gas firm Cheniere Energy in downtown announced earlier this year.

“From the beginning of the process, Bechtel Energy focused on ensuring the best workplace experience for its employee base in Houston,” said Kevin Kushner, executive vice president at CBRE who represented Bechtel with CBRE’s William Padon. “The company has a long-standing local history, and this transaction shows a commitment by Bechtel Energy to its clients, employees and the city of Houston.”

Bechtel leases all of 3000 Post Oak, said Chip Colvill, executive vice chairman with Cushman and Wakefield, who handles leasing for the building, known as the Lakes on Post Oak. The landlords already are planning a renovation project to retool the space for a future tenant once Bechtel’s lease expires in 2024, he noted.

“We are working on some exciting renovation plans for the building with Abel Design Group ,so this is excellent opportunity for a new headquarters for a major tenant,” Colvill said. “We are already seeing inquiries.”

Bechtel’s move comes as hybrid work schedules spur more companies to reevaluate their real estate needs. About half of companies surveyed by CBRE earlier this year said they plan to reduce office space over the next three years. About 84 percent said they don’t need as much space because of remote working arrangements, according to a 2022 national survey.

Despite the uncertainty of hybrid work and Houston’s chronically high office vacancy rate, the metropolitan area is starting to see increased leasing activity. The Houston office market recorded 2.8 million square feet of new leasing activity during the second quarter of 2022, bringing the year-to-date total to 5.3 million square feet —about 35 percent higher than the 3.9 million square feet in the same period last year, according to Cushman and Wakefield.

Eric Siegrist, Rima Soroka and JP Hutcheson represented landlord Parkway Property in the transaction with Bechtel, according to CBRE. marissa.luck@chron.com

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