HOUSTON-After several years of evaluation and analysis, Weatherford International Ltd. has decided to consolidate its local offices into a single facility in 2012. The company, which operates in the oil and gas industry, has inked a 15-year lease for an entire 12-story, 335,000-square-foot office building owned by CORE Real Estate.
Situated on 6.25 acres at 2000 St. James Place, the building will undergo a complete renovation before Weatherford moves into it in early 2012. The new offices, formerly occupied by Minute Maid, are located just five minutes from the company’s existing offices, which are spread out across four offices in the Galleria area and near Intercontinental Airport.
“We’ve been working on trying to develop some sort of consolidation plan for some time,” says Jo-Lynne Busic, direct of real estate for Weatherford. “Through years of mergers and acquisitions, we’ve outgrown our main space at 515 Post Oak and have spilled over into additional properties.”
Busic tells GlobeSt. the relocation will bring together about 1,300 Weatherford employees. “For several years, we’ve been scoping out possibilities in the Houston area and trying to come up with something that made better sense than what we were currently doing,” she says. “We looked at lots of options including space in the Energy Corridor and Greenway Plaza. We even looked at reconfiguring space in our main building, but it couldn’t accommodate our parking needs.”
Weatherford was “very serious” about taking space in a multi-tenant building in Greenway Plaza when the opportunity emerged to lease the St. James building, Busic says. “We really didn’t want to comingle in a multi-tenant situation,” she admits.
Prior to inking the deal with CORE Real Estate, Weatherford looked at the St. James building more than once, Busic says. However, the building was owned by another organization at the time, and the deal just didn’t work out.
“When the building went into foreclosure, CORE came back to us, and we were able to sit down and come up with a plan that worked for us,” Busic says. “The building offers us the opportunity to have all employees under one roof, along with the amenities we want including two parking garages and a full dining room. We’re also looking at putting in a wellness center and a daycare center.”
Local firm Zigler-Cooper is handling both interior and exterior design work. CORE Real Estate will start demolition this November and construction on the new space will begin early next year, Busic says, adding that the majority of the company’s existing leases expire in March 2012.
“We’ve designed the space to concentrate on efficiencies,” Busic says. “We’ve always had a very office-intensive layout, and we plan to continue that type of environment, but the offices will be much more efficient and there will be more collaboration and conference space.”
Weatherford will not incur significant expenses or cash outlays before it occupies the building in 2012. Moreover, the company expects the consolidation to reduce its occupancy costs including operating costs related to energy usage. In 2009, the building was LEED
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
