Italian energy firm AB is making The Woodlands its North American command center, inking a lease at The Woodlands Towers at The Waterway and locking in roughly 11,000 square feet for its new U.S. hub. The office will serve as a corporate and governance base for its American operations, planting the company in the middle of a fast-filling office complex that has turned into a magnet for energy and data-center related tenants.
In a company press release, AB said its subsidiary AB Energy USA, which has operated in the U.S. since 2014, plans to add about 45 jobs in 2026 and then roughly 30 new positions a year as it scales up engineering, service and integration capabilities across North America, with an emphasis on recent large-scale projects supporting data centers. Gruppo AB shared the announcement and quoted Paolo Ruggeri, AB’s North America CEO, underscoring the firm’s long-term commitment to the U.S. market.
The new headquarters will sit at 9950 Woodloch Forest Drive, one of the two towers in The Woodlands Towers at The Waterway that The Howard Hughes Corporation acquired from Occidental in December 2019. In its acquisition announcement, The Howard Hughes Corporation noted the twin buildings together total nearly 1.4 million square feet and have been at the center of recent leasing activity in Town Center.
The towers did not start out as a multi-tenant draw. They were originally built as Anadarko Petroleum’s headquarters, with the 31-story Hackett Tower at 9950 Woodloch opening in the mid-2010s as part of Anadarko’s campus, and they later became assets tied to Occidental after Anadarko’s acquisition. Coverage in the Houston Chronicle tracks the buildings’ construction and their tenure as Anadarko’s former corporate home.
What the lease means for The Woodlands market
Company filings and recent investor reports show strong lease-up at The Woodlands Towers and related Howard Hughes properties, with stabilized metrics in recent quarters moving toward full occupancy, a trend that helped office net operating income in 2025. Quarterly disclosures and other updates from Howard Hughes highlight the pickup in leasing at 9950 Woodloch and nearby buildings, which landlords say reflects steady demand from energy and data-center service firms rather than a one-off win.
Why AB chose The Woodlands
AB pointed to Houston’s deep talent pool, proximity to energy customers and its growing data-center corridor as decisive factors in the site selection, tying the move to recent wins in large-scale 1 GW projects that use gas-engine platforms for high-performance computing workloads. The company emphasized that its core focus on high-efficiency cogeneration and renewable natural gas systems makes it important to base North American operations close to clients and engineering partners.
Local leasing brokers and civic leaders, who have watched the towers fill since Howard Hughes bought them, are treating AB’s decision as another data point that The Woodlands can still compete for corporate offices that want both high-end amenities and quick access to energy expertise. AB also maintains U.S. offices outside Texas, and the new North American headquarters in The Woodlands is slated to function as the hub for that broader expansion.
