1) Increased Leasing Velocity

Colvill Office Properties president Chip Colvill (here with JLL’s Jeff Hollinden) says Greenspoint Place is the most active property in his Houston portfolio. He’s closed 200k SF there in the last 12 months (Transwestern EVP Michelle Wogan’s team edged him out with 260k SF leased recently in the submarket), half of which are new to the submarket. That’s significant; Chip and Michelle say that Greenspoint has traditionally held its tenants long-term, and renewal is usually an easy sell. It’s harder to get new companies into the area, though. Chip sees Greenspoint like Westchase was a few years ago. It’s a commuter market now, but like activity to its west spurred Westchase to bloom, Chip believes activity in North Houston will spark Greenspoint. Downtown tenants are looking at Greenspoint for the first time in a while, and Chip’s also getting interest from companies officed in West Houston.

2) Affordable Rents

Chip attributes the leasing momentum to the affordable rents in Greenspoint. CBRE EVP Lucian Bukowski says there’s a 15% to 20% delta between Greenspoint and other parts of town, and a 30% delta from Downtown. Pictured are the panelists at our Greenspoint event this week: Michelle, Lucian, Greenspoint District VP Bart Baker, Friendswood Development senior acquisitions manager Michael Johnson, KDC VP William Peeples and Chip.

3) The Airport, Which Is Even Better Than You Know

Houston Airport Systems COO Lance Lyttle (with his colleague Rhonda Arnold) says Bush Intercontinental Airport is being positioned into a premier long haul international airport. It’s added an unprecedented 11 foreign airlines in the last two years (Lance says the airport’s running out of gates and room on the terminal signs), and when Air New Zealand starts service in December, it’ll be the only airport in the Western Hemisphere with flights to every habitable continent. Last year, Bush surpassed 10 million international passengers.

We've got to give a special thanks to NorthMarq's Warren Hitchcock and Halberdier Real Estate's Trey Halberdier, who chivalrously helped our reporter move the podium off the stage. Here's Trey (far right) with Cort's John Wetmore and Halberdier's Eric Day and Matt Mitchell. Halberdier's got quite a few large projects underway in North Houston.