hoothrewpoo

Gensler and Pickard Chilton worked together for the ExxonMobil Campus, so it's possible they're working together for this one too. I really like the design as well.

Pickard Chilton works with most major commercial architects in town. You'll see them teamed with Kendall Heaton quite a bit too. 

As for the Exxon campus, I think most of the major commercial architects in town had a piece of it. Kirksey built a lab or two, and PDR was involved in the interior design of the office buildings. They all seemed to play well together.

same project. Vitol is the anchor of the Levey Park development. Vitol will occupy two floors... hardly a campus.

Really? Funny that virtually the entire business world disagrees with you. Companies pay top dollar just to get there names on parking garages.

Agreed, but you don't want to advertise your data center. Makes it an easy target. Think about the other data center campuses around town... they're nondescript and unlabeled. Ambiguity is best when you're housing the "brains" of your organization.

Cool building though.

pretty sure Chevron is only 1.3M sf...

it would almost have to be. I'm not sure what the zoning requirements are, but everything else in the area is mid-rise at most. I'd imagine the buildings will be similar to Southwestern Energy (and BMC), where the floor plates are large (35k ft), but the overall height is low.

just to clarify - this is Samsung Engineering Americas, competitor to Jacob's, Schlumberger, etc. Nothing to do with the retail or electronics arm of Samsung. 

and the new Cameron HQ off of the beltway, FMC at Generation Park, Conoco's new tower in the Energy Corridor.

so we can bet on Chevron ditching their 1985 San Ramon campus and relocating to Houston? i heard these rumors after the new tower was announced but havent heard anything since. it seems like it would be hard to find someone to buy their huge old campus from them, but maybe it could be split up into a business park or something. if they were to relocate the rest of their employees they would need a pretty large tower one would think. maybe Houstons next supertall?

I don't know that they've made that decision yet. What I do know - they have the Bell plot of land earmarked for another tower in the (near) future.

full disclosure, I saw it on clutchfans originally.Thought it fit well here.

Since your last two questions are correct I wouldn't be surprised if your first statement is true. Makes sense with what's been happening with their parking garage acquisitions. I hope it brings some more pull to downtown when it comes to corporate relocations/consolidations!

you shouldn't be surprised at all.

rumor confirmed - checked several sources. New campus designed by Gensler and developed by Patrinelli. 

Rumor on the street is that Cameron acquired 25 acres from Apache.  I believe this location is the former Dow Chemical HQ at 400 West Sam Houston Parkway.  They have real estate all over the city, particularly in Westway Park.  This must be a large consolidation for them.  Apparently going to include over 1 million square feet of office.  Patrinely will develop it for Cameron...you have to believe the architect will be Gensler.  Same team currently developing Southwestern Energy's new HQ in Springwoods Village.

 

How many energy companies are left to build new campuses for?

Cameron is indeed spread out all over town. Only problem I see with a new campus - they're in multiple long-term leases in their current buildings.... two new leases this year alone. BUT, they have had a couple of decent sized projects on the drawing board recently that have been stopped rather abruptly. Could mean something.

A lot. There are a half dozen smaller energy companies (people size, not revenue size) that will build in the next 12-18 months. There are two large companies that will build in the next 24 months.

Back to topic, though, could we expect a 40 storey in this area anytime soon? Also, one more thing, then I will shut up, exactly what a the parameters of the energy corridor? I know from Katy to Memorial City via I10, but how far north and south does it extend?

Not sure about 40 stories, but you can expect to see something in the neighborhood of 30 stories pop out of the ground in the next 24 months. As far as the physical boundaries, I think the folks on Clay Rd (GE Oil & Gas, Cameron, etc) would like you to believe they're in the Energy Corridor. Same with the folks on the BMC Campus. It's really all conjecture.

the rumor has been floated forever. they recently expanded and extended their lease at greenway for 10 yrs i believe so i don't think they'd be actively looking right now.

agreed - downtown is an unlikely destination for them. I think they'll be back in the market well before their lease is up though... they'll get a new building in Greenway Plaza someday, possibly on the site that Amegy Bank was rumored to be building a new tower on.

Oxy is rumored to be in the market for 1M sf in Houston, but that rumor has been floating around for the better part of a year. 

^ Fairly recent (December '12). I had a conversation with the guy running the project a couple of months ago, and he didn't mention it being cancelled. He said they were working on a lease with the State for the land. Maybe it has been cancelled... dunno.

The Austin project is likely the Planetarium Tower... although I seem to recall it being HOK and not ZC. From ConstructionWire:

Plans call for the construction of a new 47-story, 801,800-square-foot building for the Austin Planetarium with retail and restaurant space, residential units, a museum and technology center and a subterranean parking structure.

Not sure what the Houston project may be.

Lockmat is not the only one having trouble understanding all of this.  Are you saying you know of 2 Million square feet of CBD leases that are going to be signed (in big chunks) in the coming 6-12 months, but you just don't know who any of the signing tenants are?

To clarify, all of the major absorption I know of is going to happen in the EC (somewhere in the neighborhood of 2M sf). I assume there is demand in the CBD, because developers have plans to build there (CBD). I can't get my head around who the possible tenants are in the CBD, because most of the major blocks of space have been earmarked for the EC.

any better?

Pretty sure if you reread the comments hoothrewpoo is saying the the large tenants in the market for space right now would rather look in the Energy Corridor or the Woodlands instead of downtown. Since she said previously that the next 1-2 Mil Sq Ft of absorption would probably be in the EC. 

Bingo.

I'm just assuming there's demand in the CBD because developers are building (or planning on building) there. I can't think of any tenants that are looking for more than 50-60k sf in downtown, BUT, that doesn't mean there aren't any. Just means I don't know about them. 

What happened to all the demand that supposedly brought about all these downtown proposals and renderings?

there's a ton of demand. Off of the top of my head, I can think of 2 million square feet of space that WILL be taken in the next 6-12 months (in big chunks). There's probably a whole lot more than that. Developers wouldn't build if the demand weren't there (CBD)... I just don't know currently who's demanding it. My guess is Linn Energy make a play for one of the new buildings downtown as an anchor in the next couple of years. Pure speculation though.

Realistically, I don't think that is going to happen. Developers are more conservative now and the city has developed too many other areas, the Galleria, Energy Corridor, the Woodlands, to name a few, that have taken up much of the sq. ftage. and the excitement of building everything downtown.

Agreed. I think the next 1.5 - 2 million square feet of absorption (in addition to those already announced/speculated on this forum) will come in the Energy Corridor. Downtown is a great place to be... if you want/can afford to pay $35/ft NNN, and $200/month for parking. Energy corridor offers the same shiny Class A space, admittedly without all that downtown has to offer, for closer to $28/ft NNN - with free parking. Makes too much sense for corporations looking to absorb MAJOR square footage to look in markets outside of downtown. 

Back on topic - who's going to occupy this building? There's probably 3-4 major tenants looking for space, and as far as I know, none of them are looking downtown.

Also FMC Technologies purchased 173 acres within the Generation Park development this year so hopefully they will break ground on something soon. I imagine it will be some type of HQ or corporate campus since its such a large purchase.

Bingo. By the time they're done, it'll be similar in complexion to Exxon's development in the Woodlands.

It's a when, not if. They already have tenants lined up for the office portion.

No, it had something to do with the structure (again, going by memory), or column footings. I don't remember. 

to clarify, the interior geometry was the issue, not the exterior.