Crescent Announces Office Lease Of 93,593 Square Feet At Greenway Plaza

Fort Worth, TX (3/25/2011) - Crescent Real Estate Holdings LLC announced today that Direct Energy signed a renewal of 72,570 square feet and an expansion of 21,023 square feet at 12 Greenway Plaza in Houston. Warren Savery and Bubba Harkins of Crescent represented the owner, Crescent Crown Greenway Plaza SVP LLC while Sue Rogers and Steven Heal of CresaPartners represented Direct Energy.

"Direct Energy has been a tremendous success story in Houston," said Warren Savery, vice president of leasing at Greenway Plaza for Crescent. "They opened their first office in Greenway Plaza with 4,000 square feet just under 10 years ago. Today, Direct Energy is a major player in Texas' competitive power market and now occupies more than five floors in 12 Greenway Plaza. This demonstrates the rapid growth and success of the company in this market."

Direct Energy is North America's largest competitive retailer of energy and energy-related services providing more than 6 million residential and commercial customer relationships. The company has experienced significant growth as a Houston employer and in Texas' competitive electricity markets, as well as in energy-related services such as home air conditioning sales and repairs.

"Direct Energy continues to grow in Houston, Texas and North American markets through our work in just about every aspect of the energy value chain - from production and generation, to end-user services," said Steven Murray, president of Direct Energy Residential, who, along with Direct Energy Upstream & Trading president Badar Khan, have made Houston the home of two of the company's four lines of business. Direct Energy, who will be adding its logo to the outside building entrance monument at 12 Greenway Plaza, employs more than 1,000 Texans, about half of which are based at their corporate offices in Greenway Plaza.

"Direct Energy is committed to being a Houston employer- and provider-of-choice, and we are expanding our presence at 12 Greenway Plaza to better meet the needs of our growing employee base," Khan said. "Greenway Plaza's outstanding customer service and commitment to environmental stewardship is compatible with Direct Energy's Simple. Friendly. Direct. service and culture of environmental sustainability." Khan added that Direct Energy recently achieved ISO 14001 certification for the company's Environmental Management System (EMS). EMS is Direct Energy's environmental business plan for managing and reducing environmental impacts of the company's daily operations.

Greenway Plaza is a good match for Direct Energy's environmental sustainability plan, according to Savery. All 10 buildings in the award-winning office campus setting received ENERGY STAR ratings and each building is being submitted for certification as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED EB) from the U.S. Green Building Council. In 2010 Greenway Plaza became the first Houston and largest suburban office park to win the Building Owners and Managers Association's international office park of the year honors. In 2011, Greenway Plaza earned the Urban Land Institute Houston Development of Distinction Heritage Award for visionary design and high quality execution that stands the test of time.

About Greenway Plaza

Greenway Plaza is located just five miles southwest of downtown Houston. Greenway Plaza, Houston's premier master planned business development, features 10 buildings with 4,250,641 square feet of Class A office space. The campus is also home to The Shops at Greenway, which include a unique selection of retail options and a full service food court. The 55-acre business park and mix-use community includes residential condominiums, a luxury hotel and comprehensive athletic/social club, and provides easy access to major thoroughfares and convenient transportation alternatives. For more information, visit Greenway Plaza's web site at www.greenwayplaza.com .

About Crescent

Crescent Real Estate Holdings LLC, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a fully-integrated real estate company owned by Barclays Capital and Goff Capital. Through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, Crescent owns and manages a portfolio of 35 premier office buildings totaling over 17 million square feet located in select markets across the United States with major concentrations in Dallas, Houston, Denver and Las Vegas. Crescent also holds investments in resort residential developments in locations such as Scottsdale, Vail Valley, and Lake Tahoe; luxury hotels; and the wellness lifestyle leader, Canyon Ranch?®. For more information, visit Crescent's website at www.crescent.com .

About Direct Energy

Direct Energy is part of the Centrica group of companies, one of the largest multi-state providers of retail energy services in North America. The North American operations have grown to more than 6 million residential and commercial customer relationships. Through its Direct Energy, CPL and WTU brands, the company is the third largest retail energy provider in Texas, and owns three natural gas-fired power generation facilities and a series of energy-related services companies. Globally, the Centrica group of companies is a leading provider of energy and other essential services with approximately 32 million customer relationships. For more information, visit the company's website. . Discover Our Energy on Facebook or Twitter. .

For additional information, contact:

Dennis Winkler
Winkler Public Relations for Crescent Real Estate
1-713-259-0195
Dennis@WinklerPR.com

Lisa Dornan
Direct Energy
1-713-877-3925
lisa.dornan@directenergy.com