cloud713 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 That's a beautiful building on that block. I'd hate to see it razed.People said the same thing about the old Y.. I don't see chevron having a use for that building or building around it for preservation sake.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Wow. Chevron apparently still has big plans for downtown Houston and wants to make sure they don't get boxed in. Great news! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Huge Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 YESSSSSS!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 So what do we think will be on the 5th site? Another tower or a parking garage to support the 4th tower? Does Chevron have enough employees in the US to fill 5 towers? Also, what is the squat building between this site and 1600 Louisiana? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) Also, what is the squat building between this site and 1600 Louisiana? Edit:  It's a parking garage. Edited January 4, 2014 by Houston19514 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanize713 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Isn't the building between this new site and 1600 Louisiana the parking garage they bought to support the tower now on hold? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sellanious Caesar Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 It could just be for parking and a long term investment. They could just put parking here instead of building a tower with a parking podium. Wasn't a podium in their plan for the Chevron Tower? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Isn't the building between this new site and 1600 Louisiana the parking garage they bought to support the tower now on hold? Nope. The garage they bought last year is at 1400 Louisiana. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Huge Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 I could have sworn I remember swstig alluding to this happening, and that it indeed will be another future tower to consolidate Chevron downtown.......swstig????? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 I could have sworn I remember swstig alluding to this happening, and that it indeed will be another future tower to consolidate Chevron downtown.......swstig????? Someone did tell us there was a 4th tower planned... I don't think it was Swtsig. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannizer Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 It was hoothrewpoo in the Five Allen Center thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) Nope. The garage they bought last year is at 1400 Louisiana.So the building between 1600 Louisiana and the new site is a garage? I wasn't sure because of the large ventilation on the roof but I see the entrance/exits on my phone. So now the question, if that isn't the garage chevron bought for 1600, who owns that garage? It's right in the middle of chevrons properties. I agree the 5th plot could be for a future garage. Yes the new chevron tower is on a podium, but not a parking garage podium. It's filled with amenities. Assuming they follow the same trend with the 4th tower they will need another garage. Granted they could always build a 5th tower on top of a garage on the new site that serves both the 4th and 5th towers.. But I'd be surprised if they consolidated enough people to fill 2 more towers on top of the one on hold.Edit, just googled chevrons employees.. They have 60,000 worldwide. I'm not sure how many are in the US but I think it's safe to say they could consolidate more than enough people to fill 5 towers if they wanted to. Hopefully that happens in the not too distant future, along with a corporate relocation! Edited January 4, 2014 by cloud713 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClutchCity Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Someone did tell us there was a 4th tower planned... I don't think it was Swtsig.It was Hoothrewpoo saying a 4th tower would be constructed on the block which currently has a daycare covering 1/2 of it roughly around the time 1600 Louisiana was finishing up. Maybe they might try to swap parking garage blocks with Shorenstein so both entities can be more consolidated? Just speculating because 5 towers seems like a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Maybe they might try to swap parking garage blocks with Shorenstein so both entities can be more consolidated? Just speculating because 5 towers seems like a lot.So the parking garage between this site and 1600 is for the exxon mobile building? That will be interesting seeing how they work the connectivity out with the 5th site to the 4th site. Crisscrossing with the (tunnel I presume) walkway from Exxon mobile garage to its tower.I think 5 towers is doable, but forswe that being long term. At least a decade.. Who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanize713 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) Sorry for the mistake on the garage. Thanks for the correction Houston19514 I should actually know better since I have a friend who works for Exxon and who I have picked up/dropped off at that garage to get his vehicle. Also because it's the only other downtown structure that connects to the Exxon building via tunnel because of security concerns. Edited January 4, 2014 by urbanize713 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 John S. Watson told me it's for the sunken plaza and the ice rink. Expect big things, folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannizer Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Short-term plans for the newest block purchase by Chevron is to use it as parking and lay-down site during construction of 1600 Louisiana. http://downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2014-01-07/Downtown_Real_Estate_Update_2013-4Q.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxman Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 (edited) I have some new information on the Chevron deal. I have a source who's family is part of the limited finance partnership for the 58-story Energy Tower project in Midland. They are exceedingly wealthy and pretty clandestine on the details but here's what I have. His dad is a very well known businessman, philanthropist and investor. Take it for what it's worth: Chevron's downtown tower is in jeopardy and might be scrapped all together. Chevron has recently shopped Tower 1 and 2 (former Enron) to Texas Pacific. By recently, he means very recently (wasn't specific). Exxon, according to my source, has set the example and both Shell and Chevron have taken notice. According to 'him', Exxon has shown that it is cheaper to build in the burbs, with the ability to spread out and own adjacent parcels of land for later expansion than it is to build in the CBD. His words, not mine. This makes sense that Chevron would be looking for cheaper capital investment projects since they're Australian project is running way over budget. Btw, he also said the HQ of Exxon will relocate to the new campus in the next few years. He said this campus was built and designed strictly for that purpose. He also mentioned that a new high-rise of some sort will be erected near the campus as an "architectural marvel" when the HQ is relocated. Chevron appears to be far more interested in the Camp Strake parcel than what we are being lead on to believe. He couldn't give me much information due to the sensitivity of the discussions taking place. When asked on a scale of 1 to 10 how serious they are of abandoning both downtown buildings and scrapping the third, my source said "8."  He had no details on a Shell relocation to Montgomery County. The info. might seem vague but it was like pulling teeth to get the aforementioned out of him. If you have any specific questions, perhaps you can send them over and I can ask him but there's no guarantee I can get you an answer. This is about as close to the horses mouth as you can get. Will try and dig for more info. later on. I just don't really know what probing questions to ask. Edited January 11, 2014 by wxman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Owl Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 If that were correct then why did Chevron just buy another plot of land downtown? Does not compute, sorry. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montrose1100 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 (edited) If that were correct then why did Chevron just buy another plot of land downtown? Does not compute, sorry.I guess we won't know until something official is announced (or until swstig says so). It would be a huge shame, but I highly doubt Downtown will empty out of all our major Energy Companies. While a suburban campus is nice, why would Chevron, after buying all these towers & property Downtown, suddenly want to sell and evacuate to the far northern exurbs? And as per other reputable sources on this site saying that Chevron is looking for other space at Camp Strake (labs?). Of course every company will have many different offices around town. No major company will be 100% located in one single spot. Edit: It's the sum of all fears that Shell & Chevron abandon Downtown and leave us with a HUGE amount of space to be absorbed. Would probably take us a decade to come back from something like that. Conversion to condos? haha jk. Before the panic spreads why don't we wait for an announcement? Edited January 11, 2014 by Montrose1100 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 (edited) Damn you wxman... I agree with montrose's last statement.. Let's wait for something official. Why would Chevron make that announcement (or purchase the new land for that matter) a few weeks ago about the new parcel of land they purchased in downtown for future expansion/staging site for construction of tower 3, if they had intentions of abandoning downtown? They just bought the second tower of their downtown campus (1400) a couple years ago.. I'm sure they were we'll aware by that point of Exxons plans to move to spring and could figure out that downtown would be more expensive that the suburbs (common sense.. And you'd think they would of learned that from their relocation from San Fran to San Ramon..). Plus, if they were worried about future downtown expansion (looks like they were since they bought a 5th block downtown), they could always buy the soon to be vacated ExxonMobile tower, for even more room. But I don't see Chevron needing 6 towers any time soon...As for the Australian project running "severely over budget".. It's 2 billion over budget on a something like 56 billion dollar project. That's not even 5% over budget... Yes it's the reason they have decided to re manage their finances, but I don't think that will run them off to somewhere cheaper like the suburbs.I do hope you're at least partially right wxman, that Exxon does relocate corporate HQ in the next few years.. But as has been pointed out, over 2 million square feet from Chevron, over a million square feet from ExxonMobile, and 400,000 square feet from Shell 2 all hitting the market around the same time (roughly around 4 million square feet) would be a death blow to downtown. At least for the near future.. Downtown Houston would go the way of downtown Dallas and have extremely high vacancy rates and would be forced to convert empty buildings to residential. (The latter wouldn't be so bad but the former would be terrible)None of what wxman said explains why Chevron also put basically every other project they had around the world on hold as well.. Is that because the downtown campus is moving to the suburbs of Houston too? Edited January 11, 2014 by cloud713 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greens! Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 I would hope Chevron doesn't follow suit and move out to the suburbs. I know of several angry people who work/worked for Exxon and were living in the Pearland-Clear Lake area at the time who just saw 60 miles in peak traffic added to their daily commute. If they end up doing that I hope they at least have the sense to find some land closer in that is more easily accessible by commuters who aren't fortunate enough to live in far far north Houston. If they truly compete with Exxon or Shell for talent, it would make sense to have that option to recruit workers who want to work for a great company but either want to live in the city or don't want to move to the Woodlands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfastx Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Screw waiting for anything official, I'm already panicking, guys. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannizer Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Tanglewoods has given us great updates on this project (he was one of the first to tell us Chevron would build downtown). He told us ahead of time the project would be placed on hold. He also told us Chevron is still committed to downtown, and about a week ago we hear Chevron purchased another block just two months ago. They've been planning to build downtown for years, I find it very unlikely they would change their minds all of a sudden; we heard from another great source that Chevron is planning a second tower as well. I wouldn't panic unless Tanglewoods tells us things have changed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 (edited) ^^^ HAHA, mfastx, me too man. me too... ugh i had just awoken from a perfectly satisfying nap to read wxmans post.BTW.. just running some numbers (i dont know everything, so forgive me for the mistakes and holes in some numbers.. i tried filling them in with information i could find online)..Exxons campus was estimated to cost over 1.2 billion dollars (according to the Chron.. but im not seeing a figure listed for the 385 acres of property in that break down, so it may be even more), a year and a half ago (and we all know how easy it is to run over budget).. it will hold 10,000 people.Chevrons campus so far consists of two buildings, one (1400) that cost 340 million, and another (1500) that cost somewhere around 300 million (i found reports of it costing anywhere from 200-340 million), and (according to the examiner) both towers together house around 10,000 workers.so it would appear the Chevron campus was actually much cheaper to build (or buy, whatever) than Exxons campus (around half the cost), while housing the same amount of employees.. why would Chevron leave downtown to build something twice as expensive in the suburbs, forcing numerous employees to have to relocate, or leave Chevron, when they have two (hopefully soon to be three) gleaming towers in the heart of the CBD? besides, i thought Chevron was enjoying the benefits of attracting quite a few employees from Exxon who didnt want to live the suburban/commuter life style?edit. as i pointed out earlier, Chevron could potentially build/own at least 6 skyscrapers in downtown (1400 Smith, 1500 Louisiana, 1600, the daycare block, the new block purchased just south of ExxonMobile, and the ExxonMobile tower itself [which would unify the campus better as currently the garage for ExxonMobile is in between 1600 and the block Chevron just purchased]..) they have around 10,000 workers in 2 towers. if they built out/bought 6 towers on that campus, that could easily house over 30,000 people, which is around one out of every two Chevron employees in the world. i dont think they are hurting for space/room for expansion to grow downtown..so if its not about the money.. and its not about the room for growth.. why exactly would Chevron be moving from downtown again?also, what companies have the largest presence in downtown? i assume JP Morgan is probably #1 since they have a whole little cluster of buildings, but Chevron doesnt seem like it would be too far behind.. maybe #2-3? them leaving would be a huge loss for downtown. Edited January 12, 2014 by cloud713 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Yeah, sorry wxman, but the fact that Chevron just bought another block of downtown just last week pretty much kills off the likelihood of that rumor having any validity. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naviguessor Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Thanks wxman. Fascinating contribution and information. It's staggering to consider both Chevron and Shell moving from downtown. I think you did a great job/service getting info out of your contact. That's the kind of info that makes this forum interesting and worth reading. Even if it's sometimes disappointing. I'm just hoping it turns out to be mostly wrong. Keep digging. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 haha, i think all of us (with the exception of people in the Woodlands area benefiting from skyrocketing housing prices) are hoping he is mostly wrong..it just doesnt add up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt16 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Cost overruns on an Australian LNG project will make chevron want to move to the burbs? That makes zero sense. One project is many billions and another could never reach that magnitude. Sounds like your well connected friend is speculating to me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxman Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Well say what you want and criticize away. im just passing along the info from a very, very reliable source who is close to the negotiations. Next time, I'll keep it to myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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