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53 Story Office Tower Planned For Midland

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Urbannizer

Urbannizer

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gn1GTJs.jpg

 

Developer: New tower to help show Midland as the ‘Oil Capital of America’

 

Energy Related Properties officially announced Energy Tower at City Center today during a press conference at Centennial Plaza, the future site of the proposed City Center.

 

ERP partner

 

The tower will be 53 stories with one underground retail floor and five basement parking floors, effectively making a total of 59 floors, according to the fact sheet given to the press.

Bill Meyer, a partner with Energy Related Properties, said during the conference the building is a “celebration of resuscitation.”

 

“Part of this is that we would rename, sort of, our logo and call Midland ‘the Oil Capital of America’ because it is,” Meyer. “It really is.”

 

http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_3d45e4f6-9000-11e2-ad2a-0019bb2963f4.html

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lockmat

lockmat

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Midland can get underground parking but Houston can't? Ok, so I'm sure the land cost a fraction of what it does here.

This is an awesome project. Only in Texas right :)

In what sense is Midland the oil capital of the US? That the most oil comes out of the ground?

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ClutchCity

ClutchCity

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How tall is that thing gonna be? 850+ feet? 53 stories with a decorative top and a really big sky garden halfway up that it looks like it has should make it pretty tall. It just shows that the egos of the developers/companies of Midland is bigger then that of Houston companies/developers right now. But what happens when all the oil dries up?

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ChannelTwoNews

ChannelTwoNews

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This is planned for the site of what's now the old Courthouse overlooking Centennial Plaza - which is a fairly small but nice, if not underutilized, public space. The city voted to purchase the old building this morning. It's across catty corner to the Bank of America Tower, the current tallest in town and across the street from a twin-towered Doubletree Hotel.

 

This report (w/video) has a few more renderings visible. Also of note, it says the building will have "Class-A" office space & "a state of the art five star hotel".

  

That alone tells me it will either -a- never come to fruition or -b- there will be a final version that is greatly scaled down. Given the fact that there is still an issue with vacancy in many of the buildings downtown and that the only new construction of any kind in that part of the city deals with rehab of existing smaller structures that had, themselves, been vacant for some time and a few other, older midrises have been demolished within a few blocks in recent years... yeah. Not so optimistic on this one.

Edited by ChannelTwoNews
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Pleak

Pleak

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Do developers always count the basement floors?    I thought it was above-ground floors only that mattered in the count. 

 

As if any of it really matters.       

 

 

 

So who are the tenants clamoring for that much office space in Midland?

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intencity77

intencity77

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So who knew it took only ONE 50+ story tower in Midland to constitute it as "Oil Capital of America". And here we've been trying so hard in Houston constructing so many 50+ story towers over the years! While this building is beautiful and sleek, Midland has a lot more high rises to build and FILL for that matter, if they want to steal Houston's oil and energy capital moniker.

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lockmat

lockmat

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I've never been to Midland. Are they really that many mid rises?

You have to admit, the whole development looks pretty cool including the garage entrance? And the water feature. It doesn't interact well with the rest of the urban plain, but cool anyway.

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elecpharm

elecpharm

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I've never been to Midland. Are they really that many mid rises?

You have to admit, the whole development looks pretty cool including the garage entrance? And the water feature. It doesn't interact well with the rest of the urban plain, but cool anyway.

 

Link to some photos of Midland

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/629-midland/?p=180092

 

Downtown Midland is not the only business district. A few miles north of downtown is Claydesta. Claydesta is home to several midrise buildings.

http://www.midlandtxedc.com/professional-business-services

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ToryGattis

ToryGattis

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I'm not a developer and I've never been to Midland, but I would speculate that if you build a new fancy signature tall building in such a city filled with status conscious new oil money (and a bit of old oil money too), it would become *the* address to have in a town filled with 30+ year-old low to mid-rises.  Build it big enough to saturate the market and you can lock out all the competition.  I think the retail equivalent would be The Galleria - there can be only one.

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livincinco

livincinco

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I'm not a developer and I've never been to Midland, but I would speculate that if you build a new fancy signature tall building in such a city filled with status conscious new oil money (and a bit of old oil money too), it would become *the* address to have in a town filled with 30+ year-old low to mid-rises. Build it big enough to saturate the market and you can lock out all the competition. I think the retail equivalent would be The Galleria - there can be only one.

I would imagine that the Williams Tower had a similar effect on Uptown when it was built.

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elecpharm

elecpharm

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More facts and figures for the tower

Height

Tip -  869.30 feet (265 meters)

Roof -  836.62 feet (255 meters)

Top floor -  810 feet (247 meters)

Observatory/Rooftop Terrace - 826.77 feet (252 meters)

Technical details

Site Area - 219,582 square feet (20,400 square meters)

Floor Count - 53 above ground (+1 underground retail +5 basement floors)

Total Tower - Floor Area 990,275.79 square feet (92,000 square meters)

Total Constructed Area - 2,281,939.88 square feet (212,000 square meters)

Elevators - 27

 

Source: Mywesttexas.com - By the Numbers: Energy Tower at City Center

 

 

Edit - Added the source

Edited by elecpharm
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august948

august948

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I remember visiting Odessa as a kid and as we drove down I-20, which runs a couple of miles south of downtown Midland, all you would see is the desert scrub and then, suddenly, you'd see the taller downtown buildings clustered on the horizon like they'd been dropped in the middle of nowhere.

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elecpharm

elecpharm

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So who knew it took only ONE 50+ story tower in Midland to constitute it as "Oil Capital of America". And here we've been trying so hard in Houston constructing so many 50+ story towers over the years! While this building is beautiful and sleek, Midland has a lot more high rises to build and FILL for that matter, if they want to steal Houston's oil and energy capital moniker.

 

Midland may be small, but it breathes oil.

 

EOG Resources is building a facility near the Scharbauer Sports Complex and spokeswoman K Leonard said the company has increased its full-time employee base by about 20 percent in the last year. EOG also runs a training program out of Midland that rotates 12 to 15 people through the Tall City every 20 weeks.

 

Chevron announced it will spend $100 million on a campus west of the Scharbauer Sports Complex, while Pioneer will continue hiring and is building its new facility in front of ClayDesta.

 

Fasken Oil & Ranch is building a 60,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in northwest Midland with intentions to create a whole planned community that will include housing, retail and additional office space, said Norbert Dickman, general manager.

Source: Mywesttexas.com

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ChannelTwoNews

ChannelTwoNews

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http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_cf16c93e-9cd2-11e2-88c4-001a4bcf887a.html

 

 

Posted: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 9:53 pm | Updated: 2:38 am, Thu Apr 4, 2013.

Energy Tower developer says 20-40 percent of office space locked down Joe Basco | jbasco@mrt.com Midland Reporter-Telegram | 16 comments

With the search for tenants underway, developers of the 53-story Energy Tower at City Center said they are “good” on having 20 to 40 percent of the building’s office space leased out to companies, but negotiations are still ongoing with those groups.

The percentage range puts developer Energy Related Properties near the 30 percent requirement that the city of Midland mandates for the deed to be handed over from the city to the developer.

 

The developer will have a press conference at 5 p.m. today at Centennial Park to formally announce Energy Tower at City Center, a mixed-use high-rise with more than 990,000 square feet of office, residential, hospitality, retail and entertainment space.

 

The tower will be the fifth building ERP owns and operates in Midland. The four buildings they currently operate -- WNB Tower, Fasken Center, Independence Plaza and Graham Building -- occupy about 800,000 square feet of Class A office space, said William Meyer, ERP partner. The new tower will have 560,177 square feet of Class A office space, according to the architect, Edmonds International.

“Our tenants are demanding more things,” Meyer said. “They are demanding fitness centers, executive housing, catering, child care and Class A space that competes with anything that’s as good as in Houston so that they could recruit employees. They’re demanding ways that will help them bring really good people to Midland.”

 

Meyer said companies are frustrated with the lack of downtown amenities, so they construct buildings themselves outside of the downtown area. Meyer thinks that is not a healthy way to develop because communities have to have a strong core, he said.

Michael Edmonds, the architect who designed Energy Tower and other mixed-use buildings in Vancouver, Mexico and Asia, said every city has its own set of problems or needs that need to be resolved.

 

“But in this case, the needs and the direction is so clear,” Edmonds said, “ and the effect the project will have on the community is so large in scale.”

ERP first noticed Edmonds’ work when Bill Meyer, father of William Meyer, visited the VIP movie theater at The Park Plaza in Mexico City, which is a mixed-use structure similar to Energy Tower, Edmonds said. After experiencing the VIP theater, a place that serves food and drinks to you while you watch the movie, Meyer’s father said this concept needs to come to Midland, Edmonds said.

 

Both father and son then came to Edmond’s office, also located at The Park Plaza, and asked him to be the architect for Energy Tower, Edmonds said. He added that in the 14 years of his firm’s operation, no one “knocked on the door” to his office, asking to be the architect for a building, until the Meyers came to him.

One of the goals that Meyer hopes to accomplish with Energy Tower is to make it Midland’s iconic building, similar to how the Empire State Building is associated with New York City or how the Golden Gate Bridge is associated with San Francisco. Otherwise, Midland would remain unknown to the world.

 

“We’re trying everything to make people feel proud about this,” Meyer said.

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elecpharm

elecpharm

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Architect, developers reveal site design for Energy Tower

219,582 square-foot site to feature tower, convention area, park

 

 

Energy Related Properties, Wexford Capital and Edmonds International revealed Thursday how the site of the proposed Energy Tower, composed of multiple parts, will transform after construction is complete.

Michael Edmonds, architect and founder of Edmonds International, presented the plans during a press conference at Centennial Plaza. He talked about how the space, from the western parking lot of the old Midland County Courthouse to the eastern end of Midland Center, will become a city center.

Regarding the tower itself, the rooftop will feature a lounge area. Underneath the lounge will be 28 floors, or 560,177 square feet of office space. Underneath the office space will be 12 floors of residential space, 12 floors of hotel space, one floor of retail and five underground parking levels.

Outside the tower, 104,410 square feet will be used for public park space. And 59,500 square feet will be used for convention and ballroom space.

 

Related Video --

http://youtu.be/H75mYDI7-lw

 

Source : http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_215a998c-9db4-11e2-9b47-001a4bcf887a.html

 

Impressive video.

An ambitious project for the big little city.

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Montrose1100

Montrose1100

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If this Tower gets built, it will put everything else that has gone up in this state to shame, in the past 2 1/2 decades. I'm happy for this small city. I just can't believe it's happening. Crazy not even the two powerhouses cannot produce something like this (mixed use, well designed).

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largeTEXAS

largeTEXAS

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I agree that this is probably the nicest tower going up in Texas right now. Much better design than anything in Houston. Sad to see that even in boom time Houston, designs are so conservative. And, gosh, if Midland can do it, you'd think Houston could step it up! Sounds like it's now 58 stories.

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ClutchCity

ClutchCity

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I would say even Chevron's tower is better than this one. Sure Midland's tower is taller, but it's just as boxy as Chevron's if not more(Chevron has that groove on the north side  B)). Another thing is location, Chevron's tower is probably going to be the third tallest tower downtown, with very large floor-plates since its 1.7 mil in 50 stories, which I feel will help weigh down the skyline in the south, when looking from the West (if that makes any sense whatsoever). Their's is just the tallest tower they could slap down in Midland because even a 30 story tower would make a huge mark on the skyline. Nothing to be envious of. 

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Hugh Stone

Hugh Stone

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I like the Midland Tower. I don't care if it's a box. I think the diagonal pattern is kind of cool. I even love how this tower (if built) will be this lone, iconic, isolated, skyline dominating tower. It will grab all the attention for miles in every direction - just like Williams tower in Uptown. It's a great and unusual effect. I hope they build this tower.

 

But there is no question that there are better towers with more interesting, less predictable shapes and design currently going up or proposed in Houston right now. 

Edited by Hugh Stone
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largeTEXAS

largeTEXAS

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Sure, the Pickard Chilton designs are nice-ish, but, in my opinion, Midland's project is much more exciting. I like the design of the tower, but the public spaces (most of them) are where the project is impressive. The green roof that emerges from ground level to cover the first floor street level "retail," the plaza and water feature, and the connection (of much of it) to the street are wonderful. The vertical mix of uses is innovative for this part of the world. The openness of the ground floor(s) looks inviting. I'm not so sure about the sunken ground floor, though - I never think sunken first floors work.

The "X" facade design is cool. Reminds me of the Hearst Tower in NYC, which is one of my favs.

I think Pickard Chilton is fine and his buildings going up in Houston are nice. But, they're boring and predictable. They're conservative and don't add anything to the street level (see BG Place - horrible).

I expect Texas oil executives in 2013 to choose boring architecture. Pickard Chilton and Gensler are probably the best of the predictable corporate design firms. But, when a city like Midland, who's identity is oil, steps it up over Houston in architecture, it makes me question whether it is the oil companies that are so conservative and boring or if it's just Houston.

I'm sad no company/developer in Houston has, in one of the richest periods in its history, chosen to create something groundbreaking architecturally. The city that used to be known for thinking out of the box is now so stale design-wise. There are some small exceptions. But, if in boom time, design in Houston is this so-so, will it ever see large-scale, design-forward, exciting architecture again?

We should expect more from our city and our development community (see Marvy Finger, Jonathan Farb, Hines, Hanover, Trammel Crow, Alliance, Gables, Linbeck, Frank Liu, Greenberg,... even Wulfe, Midway, and PMRG that are doing decent-ish work).

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Subdude

Subdude

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"Energy Tower rumored to become two smaller towers"

 

http://www.mrt.com/business/article_da8d0ba2-b2e3-11e3-bda5-0019bb2963f4.html

 

Can't say I find that particularly surprising, since  it will let them develop to the extent demand for space grows.  I liked the taller design, but it seems a bit much for a market the size of Midland.  What I disliked about the tower proposal was the huge vacant plaza surrounding it, so two shorter buildings can better integrate the space.  

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JasnoDTX

JasnoDTX

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Our commitment to Midland, specifically Downtown Midland, remains unshakable,” the letter states. “We are already implementing much of what we learned during the Energy Tower process to modernize and improve the infrastructure and operations at our existing properties to maximize our tenants’ experience.”

 

Yea you gotta clean your house first before adding furniture.

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ChannelTwoNews

ChannelTwoNews

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Less than three months later, in December, a new proposal emerged for the site: A mixed use project with a hotel, condos, apartments and office space plus improvements to the existing plaza. 

 

http://www.mrt.com/business/article_f32bfaa4-7a9a-11e4-a68d-4fcb11017c4f.html

 

Today, the Midland Development Board approved that plan for the site

 

http://www.newswest9.com/story/28744512/midland-development-board-approves-hotel-santa-rita

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ChannelTwoNews

ChannelTwoNews

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Between late 2015 & early 2016, the county courthouse was demolished.

 

In the interim Midland's City Council has had to defer proof of financing and construction drawings for the project four times, the latest in January.

 

As of then, terms stated that construction was to begin by February 28th of this year and be complete by March 2019. 

 

The adjacent building on the block is being demolished to make way for the new convention center, which is also slated for completion in 2019.

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