Synthetic biology unicorn announces new Houston HQ

moving in

Solugen is moving its HQ into Phoenix Tower. Photo courtesy of Parkway

Houston-based Solugen has announced an HQ move. But don't worry. This unicorn chemicals company is just moving down the street.

Parkway Property Investments LLC announced today that Solugen is relocating its Houston corporate headquarters to Greenway Plaza. The biotech company, recently ranked as one of the most innovative businesses in the world, signed a multi-year lease in Phoenix Tower. The building is one of 11 Class A buildings on the 52-acre mixed-use campus.

The space's buildout is expected to be completed in the second quarter, according to a news release, with Solugen moving in after that.

The venture-backed biotech startup, which produces high-performance chemicals through the use of bio-based feedstock and metal catalyst technologies, signed a multi-year lease in Phoenix Tower. The property is one of eleven Class A buildings on the landmark, 52-acre mixed-use campus, which is strategically located between Downtown and Uptown. Buildout of the space is expected to be completed in the second quarter.

“Innovative companies like Solugen are choosing to outsource the design-build process for office interiors to Parkway," says Eric Siegrist, Parkway’s managing director of leasing, in the release. "With several floors of ‘Ready Right Away’ suites fully-deployed, we happily take on this process to reduce the time and energy expended by an incoming tenant, resulting in expedited occupancy.”

Solugen was represented by Nick Terry, managing partner of Rifle Real Estate. Parkway’s senior director of leasing, JP Hutcheson, negotiated on behalf of Parkway.

Founded in 2016, Solugen’s process converts corn syrup into industrial chemicals, cutting down on carbon emissions generated by traditional production of chemicals. Carbon dioxide from chemical production is one of the biggest contributors to industrial greenhouse gas emissions. In September, the company raised a $357 million series C funding round and claimed its unicorn status.

Solugen joins several tech companies already housed in Greenway Plaza, including FlightAware, ThoughtTrace, Detechtion Technologies, and Buildforce.

Phoenix Tower has 627,320 square feet of space across 34 floors. Photo courtesy of Parkway


Honeywell has once again bet on the Bayou City for business. Photo courtesy of Parkway

Fortune 100 company moves materials tech biz HQ to Houston

big move

A nearly $10 billion division of Honeywell International that primarily caters to the oil and gas industry has moved its headquarters to Houston.

On August 11, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell announced its Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT) division had completed its relocation to the Westchase area's nearly 1.5 million-square-foot CityWestPlace office complex where the company already has operations.

PMT joins one its units, Honeywell's Process Solutions business, at CityWestPlace. The Process Solutions business and about 750 employees relocated there from 1250 Sam Houston Parkway South in 2019.

At CityWestPlace, PMT is adding a customer center where it can showcase automation products and services.

With the PMT relocation, Honeywell now employs more than 850 people in Houston. Representatives of Honeywell decline to say where PMT was previously based.

"Houston [is] a diverse and rapidly growing city, and locating our headquarters here will help us meet our long-term needs to recruit and retain premier talent in our industry. It will also allow us to build closer, more impactful relationships with our Texas-based customers," Vimal Kapur, the new president and CEO of PMT, says in a news release.

Before coming to Houston to take the reins of PMT, Kapur was president of CEO of Atlanta-based Honeywell Building Technologies. He has worked at Honeywell for more than three decades.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says PMT's move to Houston offers another example of how the city is leading innovation in the global energy sector.

"As the energy capital of the world, Houston has the talent and expertise to amplify Honeywell's sustainability work. And with their focus on key components of the energy transition, including carbon capture, energy storage and hydrogen, Honeywell's PMT business unit will serve as a critical partner in Houston's effort to lead the energy transition," Turner says.

PMT provides performance chemicals and materials, process technology, and automation technology for an array of industries, including oil and gas. It posted net sales of $9.4 billion in 2020, down from $10.8 billion in 2019. Honeywell, a Fortune 100 conglomerate, reported net sales of $32.6 billion last year.

Competitors of PMT include ABB, BASF, Dupont, and Emerson Electric.

Houston-based Honeywell Process Solutions is moving down the road in order to expand its local presence. Courtesy of Parkway

Houston-based tech subsidiary moves its headquarters to new space

On to the next

A major technology solutions company announced its relocating it's Houston-based subsidiary to a bigger space. Fortune 100 company Honeywell has executed a long-term lease at CityWestPlace for Honeywell Process Solutions.

The company is relocating its Houston office from off Beltway 8 and Briar Forest to CityWestPlace Building 1, which is just south of its current office. The larger, 114,068-square-foot office space is expected to open by late 2019. The company will have 750 of its employees in the new building

"Parkway is thrilled to welcome Honeywell, a company with an extensive history and acclaimed reputation for creating exceptional products, solving complex problems through software solutions, and implementing cutting-edge technologies in a variety of industries including oil and gas, to CityWestPlace," says Parkway's senior leasing manager, J.P. Hutcheson, in a release.

CityWestPlace, which is operated by Parkway Property Investments, LLC, boasts of 1,473,177 rentable square feet across four campus buildings in Houston's Westchase District. Honeywell was represented by Rich Pancioli and John Morris with CBRE; JP Hutcheson led efforts on behalf of Parkway in the transaction.

The CityWestPlace campus spans 35 acres and has three dining spots, two fitness centers, and recreational offerings, such as a soccer field, outdoor track, sand volleyball court, indoor basketball court, horseshoe pit and bocce ball court.

Honeywell's new Houston office allows the company to expand.Courtesy of Parkway

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Houston hospital names leading cancer scientist as new academic head

new hire

Houston Methodist Academic Institute has named cancer clinician and scientist Dr. Jenny Chang as its new executive vice president, president, CEO, and chief academic officer.

Chang was selected following a national search and will succeed Dr. H. Dirk Sostman, who will retire in February after 20 years of leadership. Chang is the director of the Houston Methodist Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center and the Emily Herrmann Presidential Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research. She has been with Houston Methodist for 15 years.

Over the last five years, Chang has served as the institute’s chief clinical science officer and is credited with strengthening cancer clinical trials. Her work has focused on therapy-resistant cancer stem cells and their treatment, particularly relating to breast cancer.

Her work has generated more than $35 million in funding for Houston Methodist from organizations like the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, according to the health care system. In 2021, Dr. Mary Neal and her husband Ron Neal, whom the cancer center is now named after, donated $25 million to support her and her team’s research on advanced cancer therapy.

In her new role, Chang will work to expand clinical and translational research and education across Houston Methodist in digital health, robotics and bioengineered therapeutics.

“Dr. Chang’s dedication to Houston Methodist is unparalleled,” Dr. Marc L. Boom, Houston Methodist president and CEO, said in a news release. “She is committed to our mission and to helping our patients, and her clinical expertise, research innovation and health care leadership make her the ideal choice for leading our academic mission into an exciting new chapter.”

Chang is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Stand Up to Cancer Scientific Advisory Council. She earned her medical degree from Cambridge University in England and completed fellowship training in medical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital/Institute for Cancer Research. She earned her research doctorate from the University of London.

She is also a professor at Weill Cornell Medical School, which is affiliated with the Houston Methodist Academic Institute.

Texas A&M awarded $1.3M federal grant to develop clean energy tech from electronic waste

seeing green

Texas A&M University in College Station has received a nearly $1.3 million federal grant for development of clean energy technology.

The university will use the $1,280,553 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a cost-effective, sustainable method for extracting rare earth elements from electronic waste.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a set of 17 metallic elements.

“REEs are essential components of more than 200 products, especially high-tech consumer products, such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen monitors and televisions,” according to the Eos news website.

REEs also are found in defense equipment and technology such as electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems, says Eos.

The grant awarded to Texas A&M was among $17 million in DOE grants given to 14 projects that seek to accelerate innovation in the critical materials sector. The federal Energy Act of 2020 defines a critical material — such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, lithium, magnesium, nickel, and platinum — as a substance that faces a high risk of supply chain disruption and “serves an essential function” in the energy sector.

“DOE is helping reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign supply chains through innovative solutions that will tap domestic sources of the critical materials needed for next-generation technologies,” says U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “These investments — part of our industrial strategy — will keep America’s growing manufacturing industry competitive while delivering economic benefits to communities nationwide.”

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapital.

Biosciences startup becomes Texas' first decacorn after latest funding

A Dallas-based biosciences startup whose backers include millionaire investors from Austin and Dallas has reached decacorn status — a valuation of at least $10 billion — after hauling in a series C funding round of $200 million, the company announced this month. Colossal Biosciences is reportedly the first Texas startup to rise to the decacorn level.

Colossal, which specializes in genetic engineering technology designed to bring back or protect various species, received the $200 million from TWG Global, an investment conglomerate led by billionaire investors Mark Walter and Thomas Tull. Walter is part owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, and Tull is part owner of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Among the projects Colossal is tackling is the resurrection of three extinct animals — the dodo bird, Tasmanian tiger and woolly mammoth — through the use of DNA and genomics.

The latest round of funding values Colossal at $10.2 billion. Since launching in 2021, the startup has raised $435 million in venture capital.

In addition to Walter and Tull, Colossal’s investors include prominent video game developer Richard Garriott of Austin and private equity veteran Victor Vescov of Dallas. The two millionaires are known for their exploits as undersea explorers and tourist astronauts.

Aside from Colossal’s ties to Dallas and Austin, the startup has a Houston connection.

The company teamed up with Baylor College of Medicine researcher Paul Ling to develop a vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), the deadliest disease among young elephants. In partnership with the Houston Zoo, Ling’s lab at the Baylor College of Medicine has set up a research program that focuses on diagnosing and treating EEHV, and on coming up with a vaccine to protect elephants against the disease. Ling and the BCMe are members of the North American EEHV Advisory Group.

Colossal operates research labs Dallas, Boston and Melbourne, Australia.

“Colossal is the leading company working at the intersection of AI, computational biology, and genetic engineering for both de-extinction and species preservation,” Walter, CEO of TWG Globa, said in a news release. “Colossal has assembled a world-class team that has already driven, in a short period of time, significant technology innovations and impact in advancing conservation, which is a core value of TWG Global.”

Well-known genetics researcher George Church, co-founder of Colossal, calls the startup “a revolutionary genetics company making science fiction into science fact.”

“We are creating the technology to build de-extinction science and scale conservation biology,” he added, “particularly for endangered and at-risk species.”

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