Houston-Based Investment Manager Leases Approximately 16,000 Square Feet at Energy Corridor’s First LEED® Platinum Campus
Skanska announced today that it has reached a lease agreement with Crossmark Global Investments for approximately 16,000 square feet at West Memorial Place, the first LEED® Platinum campus in the Energy Corridor.
Crossmark Global Investments, an independent investment manager with a multi-decade legacy of specializing in responsible investment strategies for financial advisors and institutions, will relocate its headquarters to West Memorial Place I in 2018. West Memorial Place I is now 71 percent leased and West Memorial Place II is 45 percent leased. Located at 15375 Memorial Drive, the development now includes two LEED® Platinum certified Class-A office buildings - West Memorial Place I measuring 331,000 square feet, and West Memorial Place II measuring 385,000 square feet. The buildings consume 30 percent less energy than typical baseline buildings.
“We are thrilled to welcome Crossmark Global Investments as our latest tenant at West Memorial Place. Their expertise as a financial services leader rounds out a diverse tenant mix at our Energy Corridor campus,” said Matt Damborsky, executive vice president for Skanska USA Commercial Development. “From its sustainable, forward-thinking design to the wide variety of first-class amenities, West Memorial Place offers tenants a flexible, health-focused working environment where companies can grow and thrive.”
“Over the past 30 years, we have built and grown our business right here in Houston, and West Memorial Place is the perfect environment for us to continue that growth,” Crossmark’s President and CEO Mike Kern said. “The environmentally-friendly design aligns well with our team’s commitment to sustainability, which is ingrained in our day-to-day business operations and investment decisions.”
Although the Energy Corridor submarket was impacted due to Hurricane Harvey, Skanska announced in November that both buildings at West Memorial Place had come back online and were fully functional, making them the first office buildings in the area to recover after the storm.
Constructed around a number of sustainable features, including waste diversion and energy recovery, the state-of-the-art offices at West Memorial Place feature a mixture of stone and floor-to-ceiling glass walls, as well as thermal insulation to help reduce heat gain while still providing an abundance of natural light. The buildings also use an energy recovery wheel, which pre-cools fresh air before it is transferred through the mechanical system. This requires less energy to cool and condition the buildings.
Located directly adjacent to Terry Hershey Park and its many miles of hike and bike trails, West Memorial Place is uniquely positioned among large corporations in the Energy Corridor. The campus boasts top-of-the-line amenities like a fitness center fitted with locker rooms and showers, as well as an on-site café, car wash services and a one-of-a-kind bike share program allowing tenants easy access to the connecting park before and after work, or on breaks. In 2017, the campus also became the fifth Enterprise CarShare location in the Energy Corridor, making it easier and more rewarding for tenants to utilize alternative transportation, rather than their own personal vehicles.
Skanska’s other Houston-area projects include the Capitol Tower development, a 35-story, 750,000-square-foot office tower currently under construction on a prime block in Houston’s Central Business District. Reflecting Skanska’s commitment to sustainability, Capitol Tower is the only office development in Houston to achieve LEEDv4 Platinum pre-certification. Also under development is Spring Crossing, a 3-phase, Class-A development with 850,000 square feet of office space near the Woodlands, providing an excellent alternative for tenants interested in the emerging North Houston submarket.