Houston office downturn? Upper Kirby to attract ‘specific’ tenant

​​HOUSTON – The Kirby Collection, a $146 million mixed-use project in Upper Kirby, is one of the city’s most ambitious undertakings.

The million-plus-sf development will have a 13-story, 210,000-sf Class A office building.

Thor Equities is developing the project, and Jack Bousquet, a developer at Thor Equities, said he’s received interest from law firms, real estate companies, brokers and other boutique-oriented users. He’s also designing the office space with a specific kind of tenant in mind.

"Houston’s office (market) isn’t great right now. But, at the same time, we never thought that this building would attract an energy user," said Bousquet. "We specifically designed this to attract a nonenergy user."​

CBRE, which is handling the development’s office leasing, lists 192,758 sf of Kirby Collection office space as available, and lists the office rental rate as being $32.50 per sf.

Plans for the Kirby Collection were revealed in February 2015. The development broke ground in October 2015 and should be complete in fourth quarter 2017.