Shell's Office Situation

[TheNiche]

I came to understand earlier today that Shell has committed to ensuring that all of their about 6,000 employees in Houston are in LEED certified green buildings. They are currently housed in several downtown skyscrapers and in a few other sites around town. To my knowledge all of their downtown space is leased and in multitenant buildings and very little space elsewhere is owned. Unless the owners of their current buildings opt to undergo expensive retrofitting, this means that Shell would be more likely to relocate and consolidate their operations into one or more new towers, similar to how Chevron is doing in the old Enron towers.

If the average amount of space per employee is 300 square feet, and there are 6,000 employees, then there is a need for 1.8 million square feet of new office space.

Feel free to speculate. For the moment, it's anyone's guess as to how that might pan out.

[nativehou]

Over what time frame do they promise to get this done, I wonder?

[MidtownCoog]

Sounds like a PR move considering how many people they have in 2 Houston Center. The sprinkler-less towering inferno waiting to happen that is 2 Houston Center.

[bachanon]

so, are we to speculate that shell will be (is) interested in discovery tower and/or mainplace? 1.871 million square feet of office space would occupy both LEED certified towers.

[ricco67]

It would be interesting to see what they will do as far as that goes. I doubt that they will want to build their own tower, so I think that if Shell is open to negotiations to a new building, the other buildings would be quick to try to take advantage of it.

It would be extremely smart for Shell to consolidate their offices, as this would help increase efficiency.

One thing I don't fully understand and I've been meaning to ask this for awhile:

Is it possible for an existing building that isn't LEED certified to do so?

[sevfiv]

Is it possible for an existing building that isn't LEED certified to do so?

there are LEED ratings for existing buildings

The majority of requirements for LEED for Existing Building certification are operations and maintenance best practices. The process does not necessarily require any major upgrades, instead it promotes using performance records, testing and analysis and tracking resource use. LEED for Existing Buildings certification ensures your building is meeting its potential.

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=201

[Vertigo58]

Best thing to do is contact their Real Estate or PR folks in HR for the real skinny on the situation. Don't expect much as they consider most of that info as security sensitive.

Edited August 24, 2007 by Vertigo58

[TheNiche]

Over what time frame do they promise to get this done, I wonder?

Don't know.

[TheNiche]

so, are we to speculate that shell will be (is) interested in discovery tower and/or mainplace? 1.871 million square feet of office space would occupy both LEED certified towers.

Possibly, but probably not. Those towers are not within easy walking distance, and if they were to consolidate facilities into new buildings, I'd expect that they'd more or less want a built-to-suit office environment with all of their people within only about a couple of blocks of one another. Think Chevron.

[Houston19514]

Shell's leases at both One Shell Plaza and Two Shell Plaza run through 2015. Of course those are both also Hines buildings, so anything could happen.

[MidtownCoog]

Shell is also at Westhollow and off OST at the IT Supercenter. This ain't just about downtown if they are talking all employees being in green buildings.

[MidtownCoog]

Also, it's not just one "Shell" downtown. It's trading, oil, lubes, aviation, wind, chemicals, G&P, etc.

These are independent business that do not need to be in "walking distance" of each other like Niche says. Shell Oil is HQ here, while many others report up to London or Den Hagg.

And don't forget how many people they have in the Penzoil buiding.

So enough about Shell. My rate is $250/hr if you want to learn more.

[Vertigo58]

Actually that is a great town hall meeting question.

Mr John D. Hoffmeister would love to answer. Always have them at Hobby Center. You just need to write it down on one of the cards they hand out prior. Check your local listings for dates/times.

[TheNiche]

Shell's leases at both One Shell Plaza and Two Shell Plaza run through 2015. Of course those are both also Hines buildings, so anything could happen.

The term of leases really doesn't matter as much as you may think. I'm sure that the landlords would love to have their space, obtained mostly during the days of low office rents, returned to them so that they could turn it back out on the market and make more money off of it. Shell might even be able to sell their leases back to the landlords of many buildings.

[TheNiche]

Also, it's not just one "Shell" downtown. It's trading, oil, lubes, aviation, wind, chemicals, G&P, etc.

These are independent business that do not need to be in "walking distance" of each other like Niche says. Shell Oil is HQ here, while many others report up to London or Den Hagg.

To my knowledge, the folks that handle real estate at Shell do so for all of their divisions. While their operations may approximate that of independent businesses, they are all still just part of a larger entity.

[MidtownCoog]

Makes sense.

Still, tell them MidtownCoog said "good luck with all of that".

[bachanon]

so, maybe another hines building near mainplace is more than speculation. or, and i doubt this, a 1.8 million square foot high rise!? a sister building would have more "LEED" possibilities............new parking garages nearby..........taller buildings are cost prohibitive and less "green". i'm thinking a second tower is a greater possibility for hines than the article let on.