Houston-based Waste Management Inc. signed a 284K SF lease at Skanska's Capitol Tower.

While the Houston office market is in infancy stages of recovery, Skanska is hoping to be the pumping heartbeat of Downtown. With this latest lease, the office portion of the 35-story tower is 72% pre-leased with less than a year to go before completion.

The national waste management company will occupy nine floors and relocate its headquarters to the tower in 2020. The Class-A building is at 800 Capitol St. in the central business district.

“We are excited to move our corporate headquarters to Capitol Tower,” Waste Management President and CEO Jim Fish said. “This workspace is one of the many ways we are focused on investing in our people. Additionally, the building will be one of the most sustainable office buildings in Texas and supports our company commitments to conserving natural resources.”

Capitol Tower rings the flight-to-quality bell — again — showing companies' desire to be in top-tier product that helps with employee attraction. Waste Management executives said that recruitment and retention of the top talent were part of the top reasons for the relocation.

“Working with CBRE we evaluated many great options and feel confident Capitol Tower will provide a unique and collaborative platform for our new corporate headquarters space," Waste Management Senior Director of Real Estate Jim Wilson said. "Capitol Tower offers us high-end desirable amenities, along with a great location within the Houston CBD to support us in continuing to move our business forward for many years to come.”

Waste Management joins Bank of America, which signed a 210K SF lease in September at Capitol Tower.

Capitol Tower is not just an office building. The tower will feature Understory, a public, open-air community hub that will include a full-service restaurant and a 9K SF culinary market with seven chef-driven concepts and a cocktail bar.

The building will also tout a 10K SF private event and meeting space and a 24K SF rooftop terrace and green roof. It will be the first office development in the state to achieve LEEDv4 Platinum pre-certification.

CBRE’s Rich Pancioli, Jon Lee and Lisa Konieczka represented Waste Management. CBRE’s Kristen Rabel and Warren Savery represented Skanska.