As the price of oil hovers around $30/barrel, Houston’s energy-dependent companies are turning to the sublease market to unload the massive square footage they picked up when oil was raking in the dough. As of Feb. 23, Houston has 8.6M SF of sublease availability, an increase of 76% since year-end 2014. With data from Transwestern, we pulled out the biggest blocks and the heaviest-hit submarkets.
Energy Corridor
Sublease space: 2.2M SF
Increase from YE 2014: 1.3M SF or 155%
Largest Block: 242k SF
Sublessor: Conoco
Listed: March 2015
Downtown
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Sublease space: 1.9M SF
Increase from YE 2014: 741k SF or 65%
Largest Block: 350k SF
Sublessor: Shell
Listed: February 2016
Shell Oil, one of Houston’s marquee firms, put its 350k SF block in One Shell Plaza on the market last week with Cushman & Wakefield.
Westchase
Sublease space: 1.2M SF
Increase from YE 2014: 902k SF or 291%
Largest Block: 252k SF
Sublessor: Phillips 66
Listed: June 2015
Westchase has increased its sublease offerings a whopping 291% since the first half of 2015. This was underlined when Apache Corp offered 98k SF for sublease at its One Briarlake Plaza facility in January.
Galleria
Sublease space: 846k SF
Increase from YE 2014: 414k SF or 96%
Largest Block: 160k SF
Sublessor: BHP Billiton
Listed: February 2016
Adding to the pain, Marathon Oil just put 81k SF on the market.
Greenspoint/North Belt
Sublease space: 623k SF
Increase from YE 2014: 8k SF or 1%
Largest Block: 204k SF
Sublessor: Noble Energy
Listed: 2012
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