Anchor Tenant Expansion Brings CBD's Newest Office To 70% Full

Norton Rose Fulbright is taking more space in its new namesake Downtown tower, bringing the law firm’s lease to 139K SF.

Courtesy of Skanska
Norton Rose Fulbright Tower

This boosts the occupancy of Norton Rose Fulbright Tower to 70% about a year and a half after it was delivered. The 28-story, 375K SF building, developed by Skanska and previously called 1550 on the Green, is the last new central business district office building on Houston’s near-term horizon.

Other tenants filling NRF Tower include Boston Consulting Group, which occupies 53K SF; Third Coast Infrastructure and Hicks Johnson PLLC, each with 21K SF; and ground-floor retailers Tenfold Coffee and Zaranda, a restaurant from chef Hugo Ortega.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s expansion adds another floor to its space, which now totals eight floors. The firm hired Rottet Studio for the initial build-out of its headquarters and plans to partner with the Houston-based studio again for this next phase.

“In the year since opening our new Houston home at Norton Rose Fulbright Tower, we have seen our people buoyed by the ability to work in such proximity to nature on a daily basis,” Norton Rose Fulbright’s Houston office partner-in-charge, Carter Dugan, said in a news release.

There is just 764K SF worth of office space under construction in Houston across four buildings, according to JLL’s third-quarter office report. Midway’s 308K SF CityCentre Six, being built in the West Houston Katy Freeway submarket, accounts for nearly half of that.

Houston hit 26% office vacancy in Q3, its lowest rate since 2022, according to JLL. Tier 1 assets had a record-low vacancy rate of 10.3%, and the preleased rate among under-construction supply is 86.3%.

Autry Park One, a Midtown office building to be completed in 2026, is 100% preleased, highlighting strong demand for new supply, according to JLL.

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