13 Biggest Deals of 2013, Part II

In March, it snagged Williams Tower for $412M, one of Houston's biggest transactions in years. Then in May, it upped the ante, purchasing BG Group Place for $480M on behalf of National Pension Service of Korea. That's 2.4M SF and 110 stories acquired in two months. The BG Group Place sale was particularly significant—it set a sales price record for the CBD. (Anything to keep Barry Bonds out of the record books.)

9. Waterway Plaza I and II

Clarion Partners bought Waterway Plaza I and II for $125M. At $340/SF, it set a pricing record for Houston suburban office properties. (No surprise, the properties are in the ever-popular Woodlands.)

10. Bechtel Expands

The firm renewed and expanded to 566k SF in Lakes on Post Oak. Landlord rep CBRE's Cody Armbrister tells us it was particularly significant for the Galleria submarket, which has seen many of its historical anchor tenants consolidate into suburban campuses. Studley's Mark O'Donnell and Derrell Curry repped Bechtel, which loved the Galleria's dense, urban, amenity-rich environment.

11. Statoil Replaces Halliburton

Statoil inked 581k SF in CityWestPlace in one of the largest office leases of the year. It already occupies 150k SF in CityWestPlace 4 and will start moving into CityWestPlace 2 next year, eventually occupying that entire 431k SF facility. Besides the sheer size of the deal, Statoil's lease also nicely pre-addressed this year's departure of Halliburton. Colvill's Chip Colvill, Clark Thompson, Win Haggard Jr, and Michael Anderson repped the landlord and Studley's Mark O'Donnell repped the tenant. (Statoil could host some pretty fun mini-golf tournaments in that green space.)

12. 800-Acre Suburban Sale

Last year's land market was very heated, with a particular increase in suburban transactions. Understandably, West Houston and The Woodlands saw huge amounts of activity, but there were major sales all around Houston, like a Thai investor's purchase of 800 acres in Texas City. (That's even too much land for buffalo to roam.) ARA's Tim Dosch, David Marshall, Clark Dalton, and Tom Dosch brokered the deal and tell us the broad geographic reach of major deals like these prove Houston's overall investor appeal last year.

13. Multifamily Sales Supersized

There were nine multifamily transactions over $60M in 2013. Compare that to six in 2012 and two in 2011, says ARA. The increase is both thanks to price per unit reaching new heights across all class levels and all submarkets (take Millennium Uptown: Pictured, it set a new standard for infill wrap product pricing) and a number of portfolio sales. (ARA alone was involved in seven portfolio deals last year, including the 14-property Inland portfolio.)