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Tag Archives: technology

18
Feb 2020
0

Lee & Associates expands office leasing and management portfolio

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 Lee & Associates was awarded the office leasing and management assignment for 550 Westcott in September 2019. Photo: Lee & Associates

Lee & Associates was awarded the leasing and management of five Houston office buildings totaling 430,000 square feet in 2019.

The company’s landlord agency team will lease and manage 550 Westcott (83,366 square feet); 4101 Interwood (80,000 square feet); 1505 S. Highway 6 (63,487 square feet); 16430 Park Ten Place (110,408 square feet) and 10101 Southwest Freeway (102,292 square feet).  The buildings range from Class A to Class B.

“Our recent success has been due to the depth of our team and the focus we have on technology and platforms for today’s digital marketplace,” Robert LaCour, Lee & Associates principal said in an announcement.

Lee & Associates added a property management group in 2019. The company specializes in commercial real estate services for office, industrial and land real estate investments

13
Feb 2020
0

Construction Underway on 440,000-SF Office Project on the North Side of Houston

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Rendering of the Hewlett Packard Enterprises project which is under construction north of Houston.

A joint venture of Patrinely Group, USAA Real Estate, and CDC Houston, announced the start of construction on a two-building campus for the offices of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, north of Houston.

Scheduled for completion in spring 2022, the Hewlett Packard Enterprise development will consist of two 5-story buildings located at the southwest corner of East Mossy Oaks Road and Lake Plaza Drive and include 440,000 SF of rentable space.

Located in Spring, this development will house the fourth major corporation to choose CityPlace at Springwoods Village, joining HP Inc., Southwestern Energy and the American Bureau of Shipping.

“Breaking ground on HPE’s campus is another major milestone reinforcing CityPlace as the most important and vibrant, 18-hour mixed-use destination in north Houston,” said Robert Fields, President, and CEO of Patrinely Group, the managing partner of the joint venture. “2019 was a significant year with the opening of ABS headquarters, the HP Inc. campus, Star Cinema Grill, 24 Hour Fitness, and two Class A multi-tenant buildings, CityPlace 1 and 1401 Lake Plaza Drive.”

Pickard Chilton is the design architect; Kirksey is the executive architect; REES is the interior architect; D.E. Harvey Builders is the general contractor. Ronnie Deyo, John Roberts and Beau Bellow of JLL represented Hewlett Packard Enterprises. Dennis Tarro of Patrinely Group, and Chrissy Wilson and Russell Hodges of JLL represented the landlord.

The project will have a parking garage with 2,055 spaces.

CityPlace is a 60-acre mixed-use development providing the growing area along the Grand Parkway corridor near the 3 million-SF Exxon Mobil campus.

When fully developed, the project will include a full-service Houston CityPlace Marriott, 8 million SF of Class A office space with 500,000 SF of retail space and multifamily projects.

The development’s five to 10-story Class A office buildings will offer parking at a ratio of up to 4.5 cars per 1,000 rentable square feet, with spaces located in all structured parking.

CityPlace is the commercial center of Springwoods Village, a 2,000-acre master-planned community, 20 miles north of downtown Houston.

 

13
Feb 2020
0

Patrinely Group Announces Construction Begins On Hewlett Packard Enterprise Campus

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HOUSTON, Feb. 12, 2020,/PRNewswire/ — A joint venture of Patrinely Group, USAA Real Estate, and CDC Houston, today announced the start of construction on Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) new campus. Located in Spring, Texas, this development will house the fourth major corporation to choose CityPlace at Springwoods Village, joining HP Inc. (HPI), Southwestern Energy (SWN) and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).

Scheduled for completion in spring 2022, the HPE development will consist of two buildings located at the southwest corner of East Mossy Oaks Road and Lake Plaza Drive and include approximately 440,000 square feet of rentable space. The two, 5-story buildings will have a bridge connector at each level for easy accessibility and structured parking for 2,055 cars.

“Breaking ground on HPE’s campus is another major milestone reinforcing CityPlace as the most important and vibrant, 18-hour mixed-use destination in north Houston,” said Robert Fields, President, and CEO of Patrinely Group, the managing partner of the joint venture. “2019 was a significant year with the opening of ABS headquarters, the HP Inc. campus, Star Cinema Grill, 24 Hour Fitness, and two Class A multi-tenant buildings, CityPlace 1 and 1401 Lake Plaza Drive.”

Within the HPE campus, amenities will include a fitness center, café, kitchen and pharmacy, laboratory and office space, and a large central courtyard with a multi-use basketball pavilion, fitness/yoga lawn, water feature, outdoor tables, seating and games, and a large green space lawn. Adjacent to HPE’s main conference center will be a green roof terrace. The development is planned to achieve LEED Silver certification.

A primary location for core research and development, the HPE Houston site will support customer engagement, sales operations, supply chain, and other global functions for the company including finance, HR, and marketing.

Antonio Neri, President, and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stated, “We are very excited to be breaking ground in CityPlace for our new Houston office. This bright and vibrant workspace we’re constructing will excite our team members with world-class amenities, and features design elements that bring our teams closer together to further inspire innovation and our culture.”

Pickard Chilton is the design architect; Kirksey is the executive architect; REES is the interior architect; D.E. Harvey Builders is the general contractor. Ronnie Deyo, John Roberts and Beau Bellow of JLL represented HPE. Dennis Tarro of Patrinely Group, and Chrissy Wilson and Russell Hodges of JLL represented the Landlord.

“With today’s announcement, it is clear that major employers are recognizing the benefits of Springwoods Village’s location and its high quality, walkable, mixed-use environment as we continue to create an unparalleled new employment hub,” said Warren Wilson, Executive Vice President of CDC Houston, the master developer of Springwoods Village.

CityPlace is a 60-acre, fully-integrated, mixed-use development providing the growing area along the Grand Parkway corridor near the ExxonMobil campus with a new destination of choice, integrating working, shopping and living. When fully developed, the project will include a full-service Houston CityPlace Marriott, 8 million square feet of Class A office space with 500,000 square feet of integrated retail space and additional luxury multifamily projects. The development’s five to 10-story Class A office buildings will offer parking at a ratio of up to 4.5 cars per 1,000 rentable square feet, with spaces located in all structured parking. CityPlace is the commercial center of Springwoods Village, a 2,000-acre master-planned community. For more information about CityPlace at Springwoods Village visit www.cityplacespringwoods.com

Springwoods Village is a 2,000-acre sustainable master-planned community coming to life in Spring, just south of the Woodlands and 20 miles north of downtown Houston. The community is a new model of sustainability and greener living for the Houston region, preserving its natural ecosystems, building energy smart homes, and reducing dependence on the car by providing a walkable mix of retail, dining, offices and public amenities. The community is home to ExxonMobil, HP Inc., ABS, and Southwestern Energy corporate campuses, several residential communities, a Kroger-anchored retail center, 290 acres of green spaces, including a 150-acre Nature Preserve, and more. When completed the sustainable residential and commercial community will provide diverse housing options, civic facilities, outdoor recreation and the 60-acre CityPlace with office space, shopping, dining and lodging in a walkable environment.

 

12
Feb 2020
0

Where WeWork’s Diminished Standing Will Sting the Most

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HOUSTON—WeWork’s setback could lead to a number of landlords in various US markets wrestling with how to fill space, according to a new Transwestern research report.

There have been many measures of the impact coworking has had on the office sector; Transwestern offers a new one in its study: when comparing coworking expansion to the growth of top industries nationally since 2015, coworking ranks ninth. Just prior to WeWork’s IPO, momentum in the sector accelerated dramatically improving its ranking to sixth among all industries through the third quarter of 2019, and by itself accounts for nearly 8 million square feet of absorption.

Specifically, WeWork’s US portfolio currently comprises approximately 27 million square feet in 35 US metros, with New York accounting for 10.3 million square feet, followed by Los Angeles (2.2 million square feet), San Francisco (1.8 million square feet), Washington, DC (1.6 million square feet), and Boston (1.5 million square feet).

To state the obvious, the success or failure of these locations has the potential to affect availability, lease terms and other real estate fundamentals, impacting neighboring properties and entire submarkets, Transwestern says.

The math on that point is clear: WeWork committed to more than half the total space it has leased within the past two years at a time when rent was rising nationwide, according to Jimmy Hinton, senior managing director, investments and analytics. More than a quarter of that space remains ‘unsold,’ presenting a significant amount of financial liability for the company, he says in prepared comments. Now WeWork finds itself in the position of having to market more than 7 million square feet of space as the economy is beginning to slow and businesses are taking a cautious stance in an uncertain political environment, Hinton adds.

Hinton explains that WeWork’s business model, grounded in its strategy to build communities by saturating select markets, was predicated on positive leasing spreads between its own base rent and that of its sublessees, an increasingly difficult balance as prevailing market rents increased over time.

“As a result, risks inherent in WeWork’s business plan would most probably have played out in periods of adverse market conditions,” he says. “As we now know, such circumstances came in the form of restrictive capital supply to WeWork, not from a dearth of tenant demand.”

As the company explained in its IPO, WeWork’s workstation pipeline included five distinct phases—Find, Sign, Build, Fill and Run. The first three categories captured locations before opening, while the last two reflected open locations, Transwestern explains. As of November 2019, 66.6% of WeWork’s Build space, 20% of Fill space, and 6.5% of Run space were vacant nationwide, with Atlanta exhibiting the greatest percentage of availability, at 42.4%, compared to the total market portfolio.

The report concludes that the overwhelming majority (90.5%) of risk is related to lease commitments still in the Build and Fill phases—in other words, where WeWork is constructing space it intends to sublease or is currently subleasing, to corporations or individual memberships.

Of the top five metros, as measured by WeWork total square feet, New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles have the greatest percentage of available space classified in these phases.

12
Feb 2020
0

Houston Property Values In 2020 To Rise On Job Growth

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Commercial property values in Houston should trend upward in 2020, as the region’s positive job growth will increase demand for development opportunities, according to Houston-based valuation firm Deal Sikes. Bisnow/Catie Dixon Matthew Deal and Mark Sikes DATACENTER INVESTMENT CONFERENCE & EXPO (DICE) SOUTH 2020 APRIL 9, 2020 | REGISTER NOW   FEATURED SPEAKER ROMELIA FLORES Distinguished Engineer & Master Inventor, IBM “Houston’s commercial real estate values will be on a solid upswing in 2019,” Deal Sikes principal Matthew Deal said. “With Houston expected to gain population significantly in the next decade, the long-term forecast must include rising property prices that will be very impressive over the long haul.” The firm said rising land prices have pushed industrial development farther away from the center of the city, and outer suburban land prices have increased accordingly. But that hasn’t stopped development: More than 15M SF of warehouse and industrial space is under construction in the greater Houston area, the firm said. Meanwhile, property values in the urban core remain strong, as developers and builders locate buildings for redevelopment, or seek sites that are appropriate for new construction. “Multifamily construction is strong in Houston and researchers report more than 25,000 units are now under construction, although the pace is expected to be slightly more moderate in 2020 as the new inventory is absorbed,” principal Mark Sikes said.  “Investor demand is good and multifamily valuations have not yet peaked in most submarkets.” Though newer office buildings and Class-A towers under construction are leasing briskly, Houston’s office market is its most sluggish sector, according to the firm. The energy industry — a juggernaut in Houston’s leasing arena — is in the midst of a downturn, which is hurting growth. The healthcare sector is faring better. The firm identified the Texas Medical Center as a source of growth for Houston, pointing to the expansion of several hospitals and research facilities. “Although there are a few exceptions, the real estate market in Houston is headed for another good year,” Sikes said. “The region’s economy is healthy and although the energy industry is in a lackluster period, the overall economic outlook is outstanding.”

12
Feb 2020
0

This Week’s Houston Deal Sheet

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This Week’s Houston Deal Sheet

High Street Logistics Properties purchased the Beltway North Commerce Center, a Class-A, cross-dock industrial distribution center. Courtesy of JLL Beltway North Commerce Center The Beltway North Commerce Center comprises 353K SF and was completed in 2015. In addition, the property is fully leased by Air General, a national cargo handling company, and DB Schenker, a worldwide logistics company. The facility features 32-foot clear heights, 100 dock-high doors, 68 trailer spaces, LED lighting and LEED certification. JLL’s Trent Agnew, Rusty Tamlyn, Charlie Strauss, and Katherine Miller represented the seller, Nuveen Real Estate. The buyer, High Street Logistics Properties, represented itself. PEOPLE Chris Martin joined Levey Group as director of construction. Martin will oversee the construction of the company’s development projects. CBRE promoted Peter Mainguy to senior managing director and market leader for the company’s Houston office. Mainguy will oversee all Advisory Services lines of business and drive strategic initiatives and growth in the Houston market. Josh Ling joined Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s Houston office as an associate with the Tax Planning & Business Transactions group. Cody W. Johnson joined National Signs as CEO. The company is a Houston-based, national provider of signage and architectural accents.  Julius Lyons also joined National Signs as vice president of operations. Lyons will oversee all aspects of the company’s engineering, permitting, project management, manufacturing, and installation. The Association of Commercial Real Estate Professionals announced the officers/directors for the 2020 board. Keith Holley of Method Architecture has been named president, while Tyler Ray of WGA Consulting Engineers has been named president-elect. SALES Courtesy of Newport Real Estate Partners The Fountains on the Bayou Newport Real Estate Partners has purchased The Fountains on the Bayou apartment community in the Southbelt/Ellington area, near Hobby Airport. The 460-unit, the 31-building apartment community will undergo significant renovation, maintenance, and rebranding. The asset will be renamed Valencia Grove Apartments. Newport Real Estate Partners’ Matt Wilson and Jack Franco represented the company, while Nitya Capital was the seller. A private investor purchased Miramesa Town Center in Cypress. The property comprises 13K SF and is a fully leased, multi-tenant strip center. JLL’s Ryan West, John Indelli and Ethan Goldberg represented the seller, Read King Commercial Real Estate. Also working on behalf of the new owner, JLL placed the five-year, fixed-rate, balance-sheet loan with a local credit union. JLL’s Michael Johnson and Tolu Akindele represented the owner in that process. MLG Capital purchased a 10-property workforce housing portfolio, comprising a total of 2,769 Class-B units in Houston, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa. Four of the properties are located in Houston. The seller, The RADCO Cos., was represented by CBRE’s Shea Campbell, Colleen Hendrix, and Ashish Cholia. They partnered with Clint Duncan and Matt Phillips in Houston and Brian Donahue in Oklahoma. Lone Star Auto Parts purchased a speculative warehouse at Clay Commerce Park. The 18.5K SF property comprises a building that is one of 11 concrete tilt-wall warehouses within The Warehouses at Clay Commerce Park, a joint venture development of Insite Realty Partners and The Urban Cos. Insite Realty Partners represented the seller, Westfield Commerce Center, while Walzel Properties’ Hua Tian represented the buyer. Morgan Group purchased The Beacon at Buffalo Pointe, a 281-unit, Class-A apartment community near the Texas Medical Center. The four-story, mid-rise property was completed in 2017. JLL procured the buyer, while JLL’s Chris Curry, Todd Marix and Bailey Crowell represented the seller, Allied Orion Group. Sonic Automotive Group purchased a vacant property that previously housed Porsche North Houston. The property comprises 2.27 acres and contains a 14.9K SF structure. The buyer represented itself, while NewQuest’s David Luther and Morgan Hansen represented the seller, indiGO Auto Group.  Trammell Crow Residential purchased two parcels of land totaling 14.43 acres to develop 350 units of Class-A, garden-style apartments off Spring Cypress Road in northwest Houston. Dosch Marshall Real Estate was engaged to locate the land and assisted Trammell Crow Residential in purchasing the site. LEASES Courtesy of Parkway San Felipe Plaza at 5847 San Felipe St. in Houston P.O.&G. Resources leased 9.7K SF of office space in San Felipe Plaza. NAI Partners’ Dan Boyles and Michael Mannella represented the tenant. Parkway’s Rima Soroka and Eric Siegrist represented the landlord. FINANCING JLL has arranged a $20M refinancing for Sam Houston Crossing II, a 160K SF office property in northwest Houston. The property comprises a three-story office building and is fully leased to three tenants. JLL’s John Ream and Laura Sellingsloh represented the borrower to secure a five-year, 4% loan with East West Bank.

 

29
Jan 2020
0

Opportunities Ahead For Houston’s IDD Community As New Center For Pursuit Campus Breaks Ground

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In Houston, a new facility for The Center for Pursuit held its groundbreaking on a site in the East End.

 

An interpretation of mixed-use development, The Center for Pursuit’s next-generation facility broke ground this week in Houston’s East End, where it will relocate in 2021 to serve, support and empower the city’s adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

From its new campus, which starts construction next month, the nonprofit organization will also reach out into its neighboring communities with programs, public spaces and some retail, including a café.

Sitting on 3.8 acres of previously paved property, the new facility will encompass four buildings totaling 129,000 square feet, a 7,000-square-foot park and a 257-car parking structure.

The new buildings include a residential tower of 41 units; a programs building for adult training, employment services, and adult activities; a health and wellness building with fitness, medical clinic, cafeteria and café; and an administration building housing a welcome center, conference space, incubator workspace for other non-profit startups and one of the vocational programs.

A United Way agency, the 60-year-old organization now serves 450 clients, has 40 residents and provides daycare to 300 severely disabled adults, many of which arrive by Metro van daily, according to organization sources at the groundbreaking event.

The pedestrian-friendly project’s new location on an infill parcel near downtown is served by Houston’s Metro Rail, something key to site selection, project leaders said at the event, attended by representatives of city, county and state government, related agencies, East End community leaders and current clients.

Including property acquisition and improvements, the project’s total cost has an estimated value of $71 million, said Charles C. Canton, the center’s president, and CEO. Construction is slated to begin in early February, with completion substantially completed in early 2021, he noted in a follow-up statement.

Funds raised to date have included the sale of the organization’s long-term facility on six acres overlooking Buffalo Bayou as well as a phased capital campaign. The most recent push, tagged “Strive,” closes the remaining $16.5 million sought, Canton said.

Part of the new project’s vision process (and fundraising) was a 4,000-mile bike ride to assess best practices at 30 facilities coast-to-coast, led by David C. Baldwin of SCFPartners, a board member and Pursuit Foundation trustee, and a series of charrettes. Integrating and providing choice to the spectrum of constituencies served by the facility was paramount to the planning, he said.

Historic Community, Industrial Neighborhood

Houston’s East End is a multi-ethnic community where many of the city’s early industrial properties are under redevelopment, re-purposing, and replacement by both commercial and residential uses, especially townhomes.

Meanwhile, Buffalo Bayou Partnership last fall revealed its park and recreation master plan for the five-mile stretch of the bayou winding through the East End.

With gentrification concerns, a neighborhood issue, having community input as part of the new center’s planning process so that there was a relationship of trust established, said Marilu Garza, chief development officer for the organization.

Gensler’s Houston office designed the campus, excluding the residential tower, designed by Tramonte Design Studio with contractor Arch-Con.

The larger project team also includes landscape architects TBG Partners and construction by Harvey-Cleary.

“The beauty of the design is that it supports The Center’s mission of everyone having value and purpose,” noted Kristopher Stuart, Gensler principal, and design director, in a follow-up inquiry. “The Center for Pursuit and its board are to be applauded for the bold initiative they are taking to imagine a facility that not only serves their clients differently but also helps the rest of the society imagine a different role for these unique individuals.”

Open and Activated for Opportunity and Outreach

The project required creating a collection of buildings that serve their unique purpose while embracing the unique East End community, Stuart said. The buildings incorporate warehouse-style brick and exposed, painted steel beams to “reflect the historically industrial yet emerging character” of Houston east of downtown. In addition, the “aspiration” was for the facility to be embedded in the life of the surrounding community as well as a participant in it.

Garza noted the new site and build-out has higher visibility for the organization. “We want to be seen,” she said. “It’s important that the community embrace us.”

Canton said, “We’re excited by the quality of the new buildings.” To have renovated the existing ’70s vintage existing facility was cost-prohibitive. Hanover Co. acquired the property last year as part of its plans for a mixed-use development.

Since then, The Center for Pursuit has moved its administrative functions, programming, and daycare for severely disabling clients to a temporary facility south of downtown. The organization’s residential building, however, remains in use until the completion of the new residential building on the new campus, so that residents need only be moved once, Garza said.

Margaret Wallace Brown, city planning director, said the center’s new campus is an example of transit-oriented development, a city initiative.

At the groundbreaking, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner spoke of Houston’s notable diversity, adding “being diverse means little if you’re not inclusive,” which the new facility has as part of its mission. The beauty of the center’s build-out — for a population often overlooked, he said — “speaks to our city’s values.”

18
Sep 2019
0

Commercial Property Joins Tech Revolution as Spending Soars

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For years, real-estate technology startups watched from the fringes as big banks and venture-capital firms lavished attention on financial-technology firms.

Now “proptech” has joined the party. Startups are raising more cash than ever while landlords are adopting a range of new software and hardware that is changing the way they do business.

New capital sources including some of the world’s biggest banks are taking notice. “We feel like we’ve hit that tipping point a couple of months ago,” said Allison Sedrish, co-head of the new proptech group at Barclays Investment Bank.

In the first half of 2019, venture investors poured $12.9 billion into real-estate tech startups, according to research firm CREtech, already surpassing the $12.7 billion record for all of 2017. In 2013, the total was $491 million.

Proptech Joins the PartyVenture capital invested into real-estate techcompaniesSource: CREtechNote: 2019 figure as of June 26
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New investors include some of the world’s biggest commercial property owners and brokerages. Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, which has $191 billion of real estate assets under management, last year began investing in proptech startups.

Brookfield is both a user of and investor in such startups as VTS, which provides commercial property owners with online tools for managing leases; Convene, a co-working and workplace amenities firm; and Honest Buildings, which helps owners manage capital projects.

“Innovation is causing revenue to go up and expenses to go down,” said Ric Clark, chairman of Brookfield Property Group.

Several times a week, a drone flies over Texas Tower, taking digital images that Hines compares with job specifications to confirm plans have been accurately followed. PHOTO: JEFF LAUTENBERGER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The real-estate industry for years had a reputation for being slow to innovate, but investors are betting that is changing because of a confluence of forces.

For starters, the values of many properties have plateaued after rising steadily throughout much of the economic recovery. Many owners view technology as a way to keep growing their bottom lines, either by cutting costs or making their buildings more appealing to tenants.

At the same time, traditional owners are turning to technology to defend themselves against major disruptions in their businesses. In a retail world increasingly dominated by e-commerce, for example, mall and shopping-center landlords have started to test facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology to prove the value of bricks and mortar.

In-office space, the popularity of co-working firms like WeWork Cos. has triggered a race between startups and traditional landlords to provide better tenant amenities. Both sides, for example, are working with startups to develop such things as the best mobile app for office workers.

Openpath Security, which has raised $27 million, enables workers to ditch their card keys and enter their offices with a smartphone app. “We’re one of those amenities in the arms race to up the ante for tenants,” said James Segil, Openpath’s president and co-founder.

Changes taking place in Silicon Valley are making fundraising easier. Real-estate technology-specific venture funds have sprouted, including Fifth Wall Ventures, MetaProp NYC and Zigg Capital. Law firm Goodwin Procter LLP launched a proptech initiative in September with more than 60 attorneys from it’s real-estate and technology practices.

Workers at the Texas Tower construction site in Houston. PHOTO: JEFF LAUTENBERGER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Since 2014, more than 20 proptech startups have joined the unicorn club, meaning they are worth more than $1 billion, according to Fifth Wall. Only one firm achieved that status between 2011 and 2014—Airbnb Inc., Fifth Wall said.

It helps that interest in real estate is growing among some of the world’s biggest players in technology. For example, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. has made big commitments to firms like WeWork and Compass, a tech-heavy residential brokerage.

“If you see someone like SoftBank piling in the extra hundreds of millions of dollars, it makes you more inclined to say ‘the money could come, so let’s make that early bet,’” said Mark Goldberg, a partner at Index Ventures.

Commercial real estate, of course, hasn’t been completely insulated from new technology until now. Data giant CoStar Group Inc. and software developer Yardi Systems Inc. are both over three decades old.

But many startups failed because they had a difficult time convincing users the costs were justified. “The reason there’s a graveyard of technology companies in real estate is they try to disrupt just to disrupt,” said Robert Reffkin, chief executive of Compass, during a panel discussion in 2015.

As the world changed and technology improved, landlords lately have been much faster to adapt and adopt. Lincoln Property Co. is testing 16 different technologies, according to Eric Roseman, Lincoln’s head of innovation.

Russell Kutach, a contractor for SiteAware, launches a drone that he uses to survey construction sites in Houston. PHOTO: JEFF LAUTENBERGER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

New technologies being used by Houston-based Hines, one of the biggest global developers, include a drone surveillance service provided by an Israeli startup named SiteAware. Several times a week, a drone flies over Texas Tower, a new office building rising in Houston, taking digital images that Hines compares with job specifications to confirm plans have been accurately followed.

Hines created the position of chief innovation officer in 2016, feeling the industry had changed more in the previous five years than in the preceding quarter-century, according to Charlie Kuntz, who was named to the job. “The volume of technology that was coming into real estate was larger than ever before,” he said.

For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com  Thank you for your interest.