If history tells us anything, it’s that our spec office buildings will fill, say Stream Realty’s Sean Durkin and VP Stewart Lyman. (It's also taught us that our parents were weird.) Houston built 13.9M SF from 2005 to 2011. 87% of that had some spec component, and they’re 97% leased now. From Q4 ’12 to today, we’ve started 21.8M SF. That sounds like a lot, but it’s split 50/50 between owner-occupied product and buildings with some spec. That means we’re actually building 2M SF less on spec this cycle, and the portfolio is already 71% pre-leased. Stream has a few projects of its own lined up, including 22 Waugh (238k SF) and the 750k SF Market Square tower, and Stewart says it’s looking at a few more deals in the Inner Loop.

Stream’s actually leading the pack in retail development—managing director Ralph Tullier says Stream’s Center at Pearland Parkway was one of the first power centers to break ground this cycle. But construction in the property type is picking up, with projects underway now in The Woodlands, Tomball, and Katy as well. The variety of areas and demographics shows we’ve got broad-based recovery, says Ralph.