The Bank of America Center in downtown Houston — the distinctive Phillip Johnson and John Burgee-designed building that graces this blog’s heading — is changing hands in a record-setting deal:

Bank of America Center has just sold for about $370 million, a record-setting price for a Houston office building.
Novati Group, a new Dallas-based real estate player, and the General Electric Pension Trust, which was advised by Stamford, Conn.-based GE Asset Management, paid about $295 a square foot for the building at 700 Louisiana, according to sources familiar with the deal. The seller was Houston-based Hines, which developed the 56-story, 1.3 million-square-foot skyscraper in 1983.
. . . the reported total price is record-breaking, as well as the price per square foot. The deal edges out the $286 per square foot record set in December 2005 when the 581,000-square-foot 5 Houston Center was purchased by Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II Inc. for $166 million.

This building, which is at 700 Louisiana in downtown Houston, has always been special to me. My old firm was one of the original tenants in the building and we occupied the 51st and 48th floors for 18 years. Known for its unique architecture, the building has three major setbacks tha tmke it appear to be three adjoining buildings. The exterior is made from deep russet-colored granite, known as Napolean Red, which was quarried in Sweden and finished in Italy. Since it was built, the building has always had the highest occupancy of any building in downtown Houston and is currently 93% leased.