Westheimer Office Plaza

The Project Story

The Challenge

The Hartwell Group acquired a tired three-story office building one block off Westheimer with a signed anchor tenant ready to take possession in twelve weeks. The shell needed a new glass curtain wall, a refreshed lobby, two upgraded elevators, and full tenant improvements across all three floors. The catch: the building had to stay weather-tight throughout demolition and the existing tenants on the ground floor needed continuous access during business hours.

The Approach

We sequenced the curtain wall demo by floor and bay, working evenings on the elevations facing existing tenants. The LNB project management team set up a temporary covered entry to keep ground-floor businesses fully accessible during the entire envelope replacement. Crews coordinated with the building engineer to keep the existing HVAC online while the new rooftop units were craned in over a single weekend.

The Outcome

Substantial completion landed three days ahead of the contractual move-in date, with zero ground-floor tenant complaints filed during the six-month construction window. The Hartwell Group has since retained LNB on two additional Galleria-area assets, and the building leased to ninety-two percent occupancy within four months of ribbon-cutting, a strong rebound for a building that had been below sixty percent for two years.