Chase Headquarters Goes On The Market
The Houston Chronicle reports: JPMorgan Chase is marketing its Houston headquarters building as it seeks to get out of the real estate business.
The property at 712 Main downtown is part of a portfolio of 23 office buildings around the country being offered for sale by Chase, which last year acquired Bear Stearns and the banking operations of Washington Mutual.
“We are considering the sale of 712 Main so we can focus our talent and capital on our core business of meeting the financial needs of businesses and consumers, and not on being a landlord,” said Greg Hassell, a spokesman for Chase in Houston.
The former Gulf Building and headquarters for Texas Commerce Bank was constructed in 1929 by real estate magnate, banker and newspaper publisher Jesse H. Jones. At 36 stories, the Art Deco landmark was the tallest skyscraper in Houston until 1963, according to architecture historian Stephen Fox.
If the building is sold, it will remain the bank's local headquarters through a long-term lease, Hassell said.
But selling the property in today's troubled commercial real estate market won't be easy.
Office building transactions have shrunk significantly since the credit markets tightened and financing became harder to come by. Borrowers are being charged higher interest rates and are having to put up more equity to close deals.
Over the past 12 months, the dollar volume of sales of Houston-area office buildings $2.5 million and higher was down 89 percent compared with a year earlier, according to data from LoopNet and Real Capital Analytics.
Uncertainty in the economy is causing real estate investors to sit on the sidelines.
View the full article on The Houston Chronicle: Chase Headquarters Goes On The Market
Posted by: Mark Alferman