Why go into the office when your job can be completed from home? Photo via Getty Images

Anew study of the office rental market in the U.S. has revealed Houston has the second highest rate of office vacancies nationwide. In fact, the total square footage of Houston’s empty office space adds up to 1,153 football fields.

The report by Indian service provider Outsource2India discovered 18.6 percent of all office space in Houston is sitting empty, a figure that has grown by 1.6 percent since 2023.

To put the football fields comparison into perspective, that means about 1,522 acres of office space around the city is sitting empty, or nearly 66.30 million square feet.

Rent prices for office space around the U.S. has largely remained unchanged, the report says, except for a very slight uptick in Houston and Austin. Rent prices have gone up just one dollar since the last year to $30 per square foot in Houston, and $44 in Austin.

It's not hard to see why so many offices are sitting empty, especially considering the rising demand (and popularity) of remote and hybrid professions since the COVID-19 pandemic. In a 2020 analysis, Forbes said companies prioritizing the "remote work revolution" saw an increase in teleworker productivity, performance, engagement, retention, and profitability. In 2024, secondary benefits of flexible work environments include smaller carbon footprints, more women in the workplace, reduced operating costs, and more.

Outsource2India suggests major businesses in cities like Houston will need to reimagine their work culture and office spaces in order to compete with flexible work models.

“As remote work continues to reshape workplace dynamics, there is a pressing need for this market to evolve and adapt,” the report said.

After all, Houston commutes aren't getting any easier, and more workers are starting to look for less commute-heavy vocations in suburbs with top job markets.

San Francisco was the only U.S. metro area with a higher office vacancy rate than Houston, at 21.7 percent. However, the actual square footage of empty office space in the city only adds up to 721 football fields, or nearly 952 acres of space.

Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth has the third highest office vacancy rate in the nation, at 18 percent, followed by Austin with a 16.7 percent vacancy rate. According to the study's football field comparison, the total square footage of empty office space in Dallas and Austin equals 1,328 and 392 football fields, respectively.

The top 10 metro areas with the highest office vacancy rates are:

  • No. 1 – San Francisco, California
  • No. 2 – Houston, Texas
  • No. 3 – Dallas, Texas
  • No. 4 – Austin, Texas
  • No. 5 – Washington, D.C.
  • No. 6 – Chicago, Illinois
  • No. 7 – Denver, Colorado
  • No. 8 – Phoenix, Arizona
  • No. 9 – Los Angeles, California
  • No. 10 – San Jose, California

Outsource2India tracked office rent prices in major U.S. metropolitan areas for 2023 and 2024 to discover the top 10 metro areas with the highest office vacancy rates using data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The full report can be found on outsource2india.com.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Houston Innovation Awards to honor 2 trailblazers with posthumous recognition

top leaders

Last month, the Houston innovation community suffered the loss of two business leaders who left a significant impact on the ecosystem. In November, both individuals' careers will be recognized with Trailblazer Legacy Awards.

Every year, the Houston Innovation Awards honors a Trailblazer Award recipient for their past and future dedication to startups in Houston, and this year InnovationMap is doing approaching the award differently in light of recent events. Paul Frison, founder of the Houston Technology Center, and Scott Gale, executive director of Halliburton Labs, will receive the award posthumously. Frison died on September 5, and Gale died on September 24. The award was decided on by the 2024 judges and InnovationMap.

“I am immensely proud to honor these two remarkable individuals with the Trailblazer Award this year. It is fitting, as they represent two generations of building Houston’s ecosystem," 2023 Trailblazer Award recipient Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance and the associate vice president for industry and new ventures within Rice University's Office of Innovation, tells InnovationMap.

"Paul Frison was a pioneering leader who helped establish the Houston Technology Center and fostered the city’s tech ecosystem during the initial technology boom around the year 2000. Scott Gale, through his work at Halliburton Labs over the past five years, has been instrumental in launching Houston’s energy transition ecosystem," he continues. "Both have played pivotal roles in championing technology innovators.”

A long-time Houston businessman, Frison founded HTC in 1999 and served as its CEO and president. The organization evolved into Houston Exponential several years ago. Frison remained active within Houston innovation until 2020. Prior to HTC, he served in various executive roles at American Hospital Supply, LifeMark, ComputerCraft, and LifeCell, spending the last 50 of his years in Houston. Born in Glendale, California, he served in the Unites States Coast Guard.

"Houston's vibrant technology entrepreneurship ecosystem is the product of Paul Frison's commitment to innovation, integrity, and growth for our community," says Walter Ulrich, former president and CEO of HTC. "He is the father of Houston's tech ecosystem, CEO of one of Houston's first tech Unicorns, founder of the Houston Technology Center ranked as a top ten technology incubator by Forbes, philanthropist, veteran, and family man."

Gale helped to launch Halliburton Labs in 2020. Prior to that role, he lead global strategy initiatives for Halliburton. A Brigham Young University graduate, he received his MBA from Rice University in 2019, where he co-founded the Jones Student Association for Executives. After his graduation, he served on the the Rice Business Alumni Association Board and the Energy Advisory Board for the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator. He was also a voice actor and the co-host of two podcasts: Rice University's Owl Have You Know Podcast, which shares experiences of Rice's business community, and the Curiosity podcast, which explored optimism and curiosity with guests and co-host Brad Rossacci.

"We established the Trailblazer Award to recognize the city's innovation leaders, and Scott and Paul both more than deserve to be recognized for their contributions to Houston," Natalie Harms, editor of InnovationMap, says. "My hope is that this year's Trailblazer Legacy Awards pay tribute to their lasting impacts."

The awards will be presented at the November 14 event.

Rice researchers secure $35M federal grant to advance medical device technology

big money

Rice University has secured part of a nearly $35 million federal grant aimed at commercializing a bioelectric implant for treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity.

The federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health awarded the $34.9 million grant to Rice and several other universities.

Rice’s Biotech Launch Pad will lead the effort to commercialize the self-contained, implantable Rx On-site Generation Using Electronics (ROGUE) device. ROGUE houses cells that are engineered to produce type 2 diabetes and obesity therapies in response to patients’ needs.

Carnegie Mellon University leads the team of researchers handling development and testing of ROGUE, which acts as a “living pharmacy” designed to make biologic drugs available on demand in a patient’s body.

The ROGUE initiative aims to keep the cost of this treatment significantly below the cost of other biologics-based treatments.

“ROGUE’s innovative design combines efficient biological manufacturing, long-term durability, and patient-friendly features that have the potential to transform the landscape of biologics delivery,” Omid Veiseh, professor of bioengineering and faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, says in a news release.

Paul Wotton, an in-house entrepreneur at the university and executive director of the Rice accelerator, is helping guide ROGUE toward becoming an independent company.

“With the Biotech Launch Pad, our goal is venture creation in parallel to the groundbreaking research at Rice and its collaborating institutions,” Wotton says.

Omid Veiseh is professor of bioengineering and faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad. Photo courtesy Rice University