Sterling Signs 20-Year Consolidation Lease

HOUSTON-Sterling Bank has inked a 20-year lease for the Brookhollow Central office campus to consolidate operations. The 211,343-sf, two-building lease calls for a phased-in move starting this year and wrapping up in 2010.

The subsidiary of Sterling Bancshares Inc. of Houston will move into 118,986 sf at Brookhollow Central II at 2900 N. Loop West and 92,357 sf at Brookhollow Central III at 2950 N. Loop West. The three-building Brookhollow Central complex totals 797,971 sf. Asking rates for leases in the northwest submarket are $17 per sf to $20 per sf.

“Currently our central departments and corporate offices operate out of five different facilities in various locations around Houston,” J. Downey Bridgwater, Sterling Bancshares’ chairman, president and CEO, says in today’s press release. “With this agreement we will be able to consolidate a number of bank operations including our corporate offices at one convenient location.”

The Sterling Bank lease pushes occupancy to 98% at 304,576-sf Brookhollow Central II and 78% at the 300,616-sf Brookhollow Central III. The class B complex, situated on roughly 20 acres, is owned by TPG/CalSTRS, a joint venture between Thomas Properties Group Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Chip Colvill, president of Houston-based Colvill Office Properties, and leasing manager Michael Anderson and broker Win Haggard Jr. represent the property owners. Chicago-based UGL Equis’ Houston team of senior vice president Thomas McKenzie and vice president Bruce Fehn and Staubach Co.’ senior vice president Mark Nicholas represented Sterling Bank.