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Chevron Tower For Downtown: 58-Stories At 1600 Louisiana St.


tangledwoods

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While I'm not exactly sure of the block this tower will sit on, I'm assuming that this tower would have to be MEGA tall to escape the shadow of Wells Fargo (from a I-45 North view) or Allen Center for an Allen Parkway view. A 45 or 50 story tower will get lost amongst all the other buildings in this location. Not to mention if 5 Allen Center gets going. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think it really matters what it looks like or how tall it will be because at the end of the day, it won't amount to anything more than infill. But that's my opinion. I don't know jack diddily squat...

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the new tower will be 1.3M sf, but there will be some infill in the area between 1500 Louisiana and the new tower that bumps up the total.

 

So assuming the typical 25k sf floorplate, that brings it to about 52 floors. It could be higher if they decided to make some of the upper floors smaller or put a crown on it. Do you know anything about the details?

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Pollers in subsude's thread don't seem to think so, only by a few votes of course ;)

 

That's because of the rendering. Having a rendering out makes something far more real, and until a rendering comes out for Chevron, there will always be those who are skeptical that it will happen.

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Kudos for Chevron for being a good corporate citizen. I'd hate to see Houston lose a ton of business to the suburbs, or, worse yet, unincorporated areas of the county... ahem, ExxonMobil.

 

It's unincorporated......for now. I bet dollars to donuts Houston is licking their chops waiting for this to be complete. Is there an off chance that when The Woodlands becomes a city that they could hop the county line to acquire the property?

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I always thought that the "second Enron tower" looked like a love child from the "first Enron Building" and the old Exxon building. Enron's shape and glass. Exxon's overhangs and proportions/profile. Brilliant tribute to both. Lets hope whatever Chevron puts up makes as much sense and continues the thoughtful harmony. Regardless how tall it is.

But tall would be nice.

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It's unincorporated......for now. I bet dollars to donuts Houston is licking their chops waiting for this to be complete. Is there an off chance that when The Woodlands becomes a city that they could hop the county line to acquire the property?

 

No, unless Houston allows it, which I very seriously doubt would happen. Houston essentially controls all of Harris County for incorporation/annexation purposes.

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It's unincorporated......for now. I bet dollars to donuts Houston is licking their chops waiting for this to be complete. Is there an off chance that when The Woodlands becomes a city that they could hop the county line to acquire the property?

 

I don't think The Woodlands would be able to, even if they were a city.  It's in Houston's ETJ.

 

Oops.  Sorry I jumped the gun before noticing the question had already been answered.

Edited by Houston19514
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It's unincorporated......for now. I bet dollars to donuts Houston is licking their chops waiting for this to be complete. Is there an off chance that when The Woodlands becomes a city that they could hop the county line to acquire the property?

 

Woodlands isn't going to become a city for a long time...maybe never. Once the truth came out how much it cost to be a city and provide city services, most residents decided that they were not that scared of Houston after all. Most are content to remain a village.

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Woodlands isn't going to become a city for a long time...maybe never. Once the truth came out how much it cost to be a city and provide city services, most residents decided that they were not that scared of Houston after all. Most are content to remain a village.

 

THE Woodlands ;) lol

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Nope, they've already earmarked the land for a future 4th tower.

 

How much room do they really need? If their long term plan calls for that large of a downtown expansion that would be incredible. I can only hope that is true and that they make it public. Exxon's campus has put the spotlight on The Woodlands and has caused a lot of companies to move that way, as well as expedited the Grand Parkway extension from 290 all the way to 59. That would be exciting for downtown and maybe they could sway some people to get some rail lines built to connect them with companies in Greenway and the Galleria.  

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How much room do they really need? If their long term plan calls for that large of a downtown expansion that would be incredible. I can only hope that is true and that they make it public. Exxon's campus has put the spotlight on The Woodlands and has caused a lot of companies to move that way, as well as expedited the Grand Parkway extension from 290 all the way to 59. That would be exciting for downtown and maybe they could sway some people to get some rail lines built to connect them with companies in Greenway and the Galleria.  

well their san ramos HQ still house about 3k people, give or take...

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More completely idle, baseless speculation to add to the above.

 

If there are plans for a fourth tower several years out - it makes sense on a couple of levels.   IF  the long-term plans are to move Chevron headquarters from San Ramon to Houston.   ( I read somewhere that Houston has 7000 employees,  San Ramon 3000 - before the transfer of the 800 that are being moved here).

 

In  the O&G business,   there are two big age clumps of employees.    A huge amount are older,  nearing retirement - these are the survivors left over from the 70's-80's boom years before the bust.     Then there are the huge amount of new hires in the last 5-8 years.      The cohorts in between are very thin,  because times sucked in the O&G industry and no one went in if they could avoid it in the late 80's through early 00's. 

 

So who is at San Ramon?    All the higher ups (i.e. old-timers) who don't want to move and have the power to block the move within the company.

 

But all these workers are nearing their RV purchasing age and planning their move to Del Webb communities in AZ and FL.    All that will be left will be the younger cohort which are not long-term established anywhere (or are already hired on in Houston) and more amenable to moving.

 

So I could see when the grumpy high-ranking old-timers start leaving,   any internal opposition will be reduced.   Plus if there are any promises to the city of San Ramon by Chevron (and I think there are)   a few years down the road,  they might have expired also,  or are cheap enough to buy out of.

 

Like I said - pure idle speculation.

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??  The garage referred to is 1400 Louisiana, as it says in the article.  (Bordered by Bell, Clay, and Louisiana, in the 600 block of Bell)

 

My bad, yeah the garage has a address plaque that shows 625 Bell.

Edited by infinite_jim
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More completely idle, baseless speculation to add to the above.

 

If there are plans for a fourth tower several years out - it makes sense on a couple of levels.   IF  the long-term plans are to move Chevron headquarters from San Ramon to Houston.   ( I read somewhere that Houston has 7000 employees,  San Ramon 3000 - before the transfer of the 800 that are being moved here).

 

In  the O&G business,   there are two big age clumps of employees.    A huge amount are older,  nearing retirement - these are the survivors left over from the 70's-80's boom years before the bust.     Then there are the huge amount of new hires in the last 5-8 years.      The cohorts in between are very thin,  because times sucked in the O&G industry and no one went in if they could avoid it in the late 80's through early 00's. 

 

So who is at San Ramon?    All the higher ups (i.e. old-timers) who don't want to move and have the power to block the move within the company.

 

But all these workers are nearing their RV purchasing age and planning their move to Del Webb communities in AZ and FL.    All that will be left will be the younger cohort which are not long-term established anywhere (or are already hired on in Houston) and more amenable to moving.

 

So I could see when the grumpy high-ranking old-timers start leaving,   any internal opposition will be reduced.   Plus if there are any promises to the city of San Ramon by Chevron (and I think there are)   a few years down the road,  they might have expired also,  or are cheap enough to buy out of.

 

Like I said - pure idle speculation.

More baseless, idle speculation, but if the above is true then there's probably going to be some lively debate within the Chevron rank and file about Houston vs the Bay Area. I work for a company based not far from San Ramon and most people there of all cohorts, but particularly the younger ones have a negative attitude towards Texas in general and don't really believe me when I tell them how diverse Houston is.

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  • 2 months later...

It's been a little while since we've had any updates on this.  Do any of the guys with "inside sources" have anything that could be shared here?  I think this building is the most likely to go up next despite no real press on it.

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Lat news feed I read was dated march 2013 , and hey had decided that instead of moving 800, they would move only 400, dont know if thats big enough to justify a new tower, but like someone said if they do  build a new tower it would mean they are planning bigger things than a office for  400. just not ready to talk about.. remember when exxon was planning to build the woodlands campus they denied the rumors at first, then they would,nt comment, they they finally came clean.

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I believe the state and the city are trying to have the headquarters moved here.  This would be huge, Chevron is the third largest company with 245 billion in revenues.  Number three after ExxonMobil and Wal-Mart.  They have more employees here then California.  Something will happen, why have a empty lot just sitting there?   

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I heard from a CVX employee today that an internal memo showed having the same speed stick design but "significantly" taller than the other two towers. He guessed in the 60 story range

 

That would be awesome...but a good design could make it so much better.

Edited by por favor gracias
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My working model of how HQ moves happen is that it generally depends on what the top guy wants, not the mass of execs under him.  That mental model is just based on having seen it happen that way in the past ... like the ExxonMobil and (I think) Fluor HQ relocations to Dallas.   Both of those companies had much bigger employee counts in Houston than where they put their HQ.  But, having seen that occur in a couple of cases doesn't mean that it will always happen that way. 

 

Chevron is difficult for me to predict, even though I once worked for them.  A lot of valuable technical people, not just the brass, report to work in San Ramon and would rather retire or find jobs elsewhere than move to Texas.  Ultimately, I don't think the opinion of those valuable technical people matters a whit.  I think if the HQ moves here, it will be when the top guy (and maybe his cohorts) are ready to retire.

Edited by ArchFan
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That would be awesome...but a good design could make it so much better.

I would prefer something different too but the speed stick design is actually very nice in my opinion. There are differences in the details, too, so I'm confident the shape would be the same but slightly different than the other two, too. 60--ish stories doesn't hurt either.

Plus, not that everything NYC does is gold but they have some towers that look exactly the same, too.

I think if we truly want to get this built we ought to go fill up at a chevron station ASAP! ;p

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I would prefer something different too but the speed stick design is actually very nice in my opinion. There are differences in the details, too, so I'm confident the shape would be the same but slightly different than the other two, too. 60--ish stories doesn't hurt either.

Plus, not that everything NYC does is gold but they have some towers that look exactly the same, too.

I think if we truly want to get this built we ought to go fill up at a chevron station ASAP! ;p

 

I do like that design, too. It could certainly look good and fit in really well at that location. I really hope it's 60+ stories and 800+ feet tall.

 

I'll hit up a Chevron or two next week...

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  • The title was changed to Chevron Tower For Downtown: 58-Stories At 1600 Louisiana St.

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