Lowbrow Posted February 1, 2005 Share Posted February 1, 2005 LARGEST EMPLOYERS IN DOWNTOWN HOUSTONCOMPANY EMPLOYEESShell Oil Company 5,744Harris County 4,750Exxon Mobil Corporation 4,420City of Houston 4,000JPMorgan Chase 3,000Continental Airlines 2,824Foley's 2,500US Post Office 2,314CenterPoint Energy 2,199US Government 2,100Christus St. Joseph Hospital 1,869Bank of America 1,812Halliburton 1,796Reliant 1,760ChevronTexaco * 1,700Bank One Texas 1,200Waste Management, Inc 1,200Houston Chronicle 1,100Deloitte & Touche L.L.P 980Vinson & Elkins, LLP 903PricewaterhouseCoopers, L.L.P. 893Devon 875Fulbright & Jaworski LLP 843El Paso Corporation ** 800Lyondell Petrochemical Co 788Ernst & Young 771Dynegy 700Baker & Botts 692University of Houston-Downtown 655Southwest Bank of Texas 646Kinder Morgan 600Metropolitan Transit Authority 544KPMG Peat Marwick 506Amerada Hess Corporation 500Calpine 500*ChevronTexaco is relocating employees to downtown, after which it expects to employ 4,100 in downtown by the summer of 2005.**El Paso is relocating employees to downtown, and expects to employ 2,900 in downtown by the end of 2004.LINK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt16 Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 Does anybody know roughly, how many people work downtown? With numbers like these, surely we could support a lot more residential downtown that we have now. Just a small percentage of 100,000 wanting to live near work would make a attractive downtown residential market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 I wonder if that list includes contractors? I doubt it, but I know Shell has a TON. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTAWACS Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 Foley's 2,500 ???That's got to be off.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 No doubt about Foley's being off.Maybe every Foley's in the city, but no way 2,500 people work there. They are only open from 10-6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowbrow Posted February 2, 2005 Author Share Posted February 2, 2005 Foley's is headquartered here too so perhaps that is mainly administrative. (They are owned by the May company out of St. Louis though.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 A nice chunk of the Foley's is administrative and operations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowbrow Posted February 2, 2005 Author Share Posted February 2, 2005 In an attempt to be as least productive as possible today I broke down that list into:oil 15,035public 13,708financial 9,808energy 6,559travel 2,824retail 2,500law 2,438hospital 1,869waste 1,200media 1,100chemical 788education 655total 58,484there is some grey area. fine line on some energy/oil and some financial/law. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 I can't find a link right now, but I've read in the past that there are 150,000 - 160,000 jobs in downtown Houston. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssullivan Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 Even though May owns Foley's and is based in St. Louis, May operates each department store brand under its umbrella pretty independently. Almost all of the buyers, HR, finanical, and promotions work for Foley's comes out of their office, which is above the store downtown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted February 7, 2005 Share Posted February 7, 2005 Well, it looks like Federated (Macy's) is about to purchase May (Foley's).Hope they keep the Foley's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTAWACS Posted February 7, 2005 Share Posted February 7, 2005 Link to that story? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowbrow Posted February 28, 2005 Author Share Posted February 28, 2005 Feb. 27, 2005, 7:20PMReport: Federated to buy May for $10.4 billionAssociated PressLINKCINCINNATI -- Federated Department Stores Inc., operator of Macy's and Bloomingdale's, has reached a deal to buy rival May Department Stores Inc., owner of Foley's in Houston, for $10.4 billion, according to a published report.The boards of the two companies approved the deal over the weekend, according to the Washington Post, which cited anonymous sources close to the deal. Exact details of the deal could not be determined, but the Post reported that Federated will pay about $35.50 in cash and stock for each May share.The deal would bring together Cincinnati-based Federated with the company known for its Marshall Field's and Lord & Taylor chains, creating a company with 1,000 stores and $30 billion in annual sales.The merger comes as retailers look to consolidate in order to reduce advertising and other costs while gaining bargaining power with suppliers. Just last November, Kmart Holding Corp. agreed to buy Sears, Roebuck & Co. for $11.5 billion.Federated and St. Louis-based May have discussed a possible merger on and off for a couple of years, but speculation heated up when May Chief Executive and Chairman Gene Kahn abruptly left in January. That cleared the way for Federated Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren to head the combined entity.May stock has been rising in recent weeks in anticipation of a deal, including a 4 percent jump, or $1.50 a share, to close at $35.35 in trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has ranged in price from $23.04 to $36.48.Federated shares closed at $56.79 on Friday, near the upper end of its 52-week range of $42.80 to $59.91. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 This is a press release we received today from Crescent Real Estate, a company which owns a number of buildings in Houston including Greenway Plaza and Houston Center.---Crescent Announces Lease Termination Agreement with El Paso CorporationFORT WORTH, Texas, Jul 18, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Crescent Real Estate Equities Company (NYSE: CEI) announced today that its subsidiaries, Crescent Real Estate Funding III, L.P., and Crescent Real Estate Funding V, L.P., have signed an agreement with Crescent's largest office customer, El Paso Corporation ("El Paso"), which will terminate El Paso's leases effective December 31, 2007. Under the agreement, El Paso is required to pay in cash to Crescent:-- $65 million in termination fees in periodic installments through December 31, 2007; and-- $62 million in rent according to original contractual lease terms from July 1, 2005, through December 31, 2007.Crescent plans to immediately begin re-marketing all space not currently subleased. Crescent can collect rent simultaneous with El Paso's rent if the vacant space of approximately 762,000 square feet is re-leased before 2007.In May 2004, El Paso notified Crescent that, as part of its long-range plan to reposition the company, it was consolidating its personnel from Crescent's Greenway Plaza to a building El Paso owns in downtown Houston. At the time, El Paso was under lease obligations for 912,000 square feet in Greenway Plaza, a 4.3 million square-foot, mixed-use, Class A complex located in one of Houston's premier submarkets. Since then, 24,000 square feet of the original lease have expired, leaving El Paso contractually responsible for 888,000 square feet. El Paso is current on all rental obligations, and, under the termination agreement, will continue paying rent through 2007. Original expirations for the space ranged from 2007 through 2014.John C. Goff, Crescent's vice chairman and chief executive officer, commented, "We have been working with El Paso for some time now on an agreement that satisfies both Crescent's and El Paso's two very distinct goals. Crescent's desire was to arrive at an appropriate termination fee while having the time and the opportunity to re-lease El Paso's space prior to termination. El Paso, on the other hand, wanted to consolidate its Houston-based workforce to one location. We believe that we reached an agreement that works well for both parties."Regarding Crescent's plans to re-lease the El Paso space, Goff added, "We are bullish about the Houston office market and, specifically, the attractiveness of Greenway Plaza as an office location. We believe that it is realistic to re-lease this space by the end of 2007." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great Hizzy! Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 So I read this to say that Downtown will gain at Greenway's expense. Correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 good and bad news. Good news for downtown. Bad for Greenway.A positive lining? Downtown will get more workers. Also, office space in Greenway which I assume is cheaper than downtown is now on the market for some smaller businesses to rent out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1fd Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 A positive lining? Downtown will get more workers. Also, office space in Greenway which I assume is cheaper than downtown is now on the market for some smaller businesses to rent out.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>ElPaso moved out a while back.Our company just subleased one of the top floors in Greenway #9....it is a much better deal than the terrible little dump we left behind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirzania Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 There's one major flaw about Greenway:Mass transit. The only bus that goes by here from a commuter's standpoint is Northwest Transit Center. So, if I were coming from Katy, I'd have to go to Addicks, get the bus to NWTC, which then winds its way down 610 and eventually over to Greenway. If you ask me, that's just way too much bus switching for one person in the morning.Most of the companies here, like Direct Energy, have MetroVans that employees started up. But most of them are already full. I can't imagine coming in from, say, Spring to Greenway. :shudder: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 The woodlands have a express bus service to Greenway and Downtown.The WestPark Tollway and Fort Bend Parkway will help commuters alot to Greenway, but Katy still has problems getting in there.I guess with the BRT from the NWTC to the proposed East-West LRT line would give them a way to get there without having to get on I-610. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelguy_73 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Was the space always El Paso's, or did they inherit it from Sonat Exploration when they took them over? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 Was the space always El Paso's, or did they inherit it from Sonat Exploration when they took them over?<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Neither. They inherited the space from The Coastal Corporation, when El Paso took them over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 I love the El Paso building.It's my fave shorcut downtown to beat the rain.1959 AIA Award. And you can even skate the 1/4 pipe walls.But man, it's a smokers paradise under there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 I guess y'all read Sarnoff's column, about JP Morgan Chase consolidating their downtown offices? They merged with Bank One, which means elimination of space. They are cancelling on two leases, opening up 250,000 sf downtown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigguy Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 have you heard that amergy bank will be merging with zions processing center will go to utah just as vectra of denver did . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstonsemipro Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 Downtown Houston will become another Detriot, a Cleveland, or Kansas City. I'll think Houston need to turn to Casinos for revenue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YakuzaIce Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 Downtown Houston will become another Detriot, a Cleveland, or Kansas City. I'll think Houston need to turn to Casinos for revenue. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh come on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 Don't ruin this city with Casinos. That would seem like you are giving up all hope and trying to take an easy way out. I don't want Houston to be reduced to a gambling town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 What's funny is that JPMC has three people to a desk at their Fannin location (old Howell Corp Building).Massive overcrowding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbaNerd Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 Perhaps they could start leasing the downtown buildings out to medical professionals(since there is an extreme shortage of space for doctors, dentists, etc.). If this was done, then I'm sure a big chunk of that vacancy would be taken up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjb434 Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 They are building lots of medical office space around town right now, but I'm not sure if everyone want to drive to downtown to go to the doctors office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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