Houston's skyline could soon get even taller with up to 12 new office towers

Houston's skyline could soon get even taller with as many as a dozen new office towers likely moving forward within the next few years, according to commercial real estate experts.

"I'd say six to 12 new buildings are going to happen," Houston commercial real estate veteran Tim Relyea, executive vice chairman of Cushman & Wakefield, told Realty News Report.

The renewed interest comes as companies gravitate toward new office buildings with restaurants, fitness centers and other workplace amenities. According to Realty News Report, those types of buildings remain in short supply because relatively few have been built in recent years.

"Houston has been slow to add new buildings," Parker Duffie, managing director for Houston offices said. 

Vacancy in Houston's Trophy Class A+ office buildings, or newer, amenity-rich spaces in prime locations, sits at 11.7 percent, compared with 24.9 percent for Class B office properties, which are typically older with fewer features and lower rental rates, according to CBRE's latest quarterly report. The firm said the divide is especially noticeable in downtown Houston, along the Katy Freeway and in The Woodlands, where tenants continue gravitating toward newer, higher-quality office space.

The optimism comes just weeks after developers broke ground on Houston's first Ritz-Carlton hotel and residences, a project expected to add another luxury high-rise to the city's skyline.

Demand for top-tier office space in Houston has already shown signs of strengthening. Hines' 47-story Texas Tower in downtown Houston, which opened in late 2021, is now 99 percent leased, according to Realty News Report.

The report also noted that many older office buildings are "being torn down and some are being converted to residential or hotel uses" as demand shifts toward newer, higher-end office space.

Still, any construction boom is expected to unfold gradually. Realty News Report noted lenders typically require new office projects to be at least 50 percent preleased before construction begins, meaning many proposed towers could still be years away.

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