A 20-story office tower in downtown Houston that once served as the home of a Sakowitz department store has been bought by Harris County.
Goodwin Advisors facilitated the sale of 1010 Lamar St. to the county for $26 million, according to Goodwin’s Jason Presley and Evan Stone. Goodwin represented the seller, a lender that took over the office tower in a foreclosure proceeding. The purchase includes the adjacent parking garage at 1111 Main St., according to Harris County public records.
Harris County, the third-most-populous county in the nation and largest in Texas with more than 4.7 million residents, covers the city of Houston and some of its neighboring suburbs.
The county plans to use the building, built in 1981, as part of its plans to consolidate county offices, according to public agenda filings. The county has asked for $9.5 million as part of the first phase of renovations at the building, according to the agenda.
The property was initially put on the market in 2018 by the building’s owner, Younan Properties. Younan, according to a statement it issued in December 2018, refinanced the property and spent $7 million on renovations and tenant improvements.
The building was renamed Lamar Plaza shortly after renovations were completed. The building was later foreclosed on and taken over by its lender, which eventually hired Goodwin to sell the property.
“It was a 1980s vintage atrium office building in the center of a major city" central business district, Presley told CoStar News in a phone interview. "You just have to find the right person it is relevant to.”
Presley and Stone tailored their marketing efforts and procured a specific list of buyers, reaching out to each one individually. They eventually found a buyer in Harris County.
The building was 20% occupied at the time of sale, according to Presley and Stone. It’s unclear whether those tenants would remain in the building.
A Harris County representative who worked with Goodwin on the sale of 1010 Lamar could not be immediately reached to comment.