Chesapeake buys Ft. Worth tower

[metro]

Chesapeake to buy Fort Worth tower

April 1, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY – Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to purchase a 20-story office building in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, for an undisclosed price, the company announced Monday.

The Tarrant County Appraisal District considers the land and building to be worth about $72.5 million, according to 2007 county records.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake has its sights on the 460,000-square-foot Pier 1 Imports Building to house its district headquarters for the company’s Barnett Shale drilling operations in north Texas. The company reports it has about 800 Barnett Shale wells in Tarrant, Johnson and Dallas counties.

It employs 5,000 people directly, and indirectly, in the Fort Worth area, and anticipates growing its employee base in Texas in the coming years. Additional support offices are also planned in Tarrant County. Built in 2004, the glass and gray granite building has been the corporate headquarters for Pier 1 Imports Inc.“We have spent the past year evaluating options concerning our headquarters,” said Pier 1 CEO Alex Smith in a written statement. “We had three goals in mind: recouping our investment, minimizing ongoing costs, and finding a quality business partner for a leasing relationship. The deal that we have structured with Chesapeake accomplishes all three goals. We are proud to be partnered with a leader in the natural gas industry as well as a leader in the Fort Worth community.”

Pier 1 plans to remain in the building and lease 10 floors – about 25,000 square feet – back from Chesapeake. The retailer reported 2007 losses of more than $226 million on sales of $1.6 billion.“The purchase of this architecturally significant building in downtown Fort Worth clearly demonstrates Chesapeake’s commitment to a very long-term presence in the Barnett Shale play,” said Julie H. Wilson, Chesapeake’s vice president of Corporate Development, in a prepared statement. “This building will allow us to provide much needed office space to support our rapidly growing Barnett Shale activities and will give our employees the space, amenities and resources they need to perform their jobs at the highest level.”

Chesapeake began drilling in Texas in 1990 and reports it has invested more than $15 billion in Texas since that time. The company’s Fort Worth offices are currently in the D.R. Horton Tower, where it plans to remain until the anticipated transaction closing on June 1 when it will finalize relocation plans. In addition to its operations in Texas, Chesapeake is also building a regional divisional headquarters for its eastern division operations in West Virginia.

[Kerry]

Yawn. Would be nice to consolidate offices in OKC but I am sure Chesapeake know how to run their business. Since this is just moving employees around in downtown Ft. Worth it is a non-event for me.

[metro]

Kerry, I understand your point but this part of the article is worth contemplating:

It employs 5,000 people directly, and indirectly, in the Fort Worth area, and anticipates growing its employee base in Texas in the coming years.

5,000 employees in the DFW area, I believe they only have about 2,000 in OKC. Can we not consolidate some of those DFW jobs back to OKC? That's more than double the OKC (HQ) workforce. Those are huge numbers.

[sethsrott]

This is disgusting, I knew that Chesapeake didn't care about downtown, but for them to pull a stunt like this! I think this could be the beginging of Chesapeaks moving out of Oklahoma City, why on earth do you need 5,000 administration (and that is what an office job is) jobs in Ft. Worth when you are based out of Oklahoma City????

Although if they are willing to buy a tower in Ft. Worth as opposed to try and build another campus maybe they will consider building downtown...but I wouldn't count on it, this just proves that McClendon doesn't care about Oklahoma and their stupid ad campaigns are just a PR stunt.

[tuck]

The attraction in Fort Worth is The Barnett Shale, which is the largest natural gas find in years. The oil & gas companies in Fort Worth can't hire people fast enough...Chesapeakes presence there should double quickly.

[tuck]

This is disgusting, I knew that Chesapeake didn't care about downtown, but for them to pull a stunt like this! I think this could be the beginging of Chesapeaks moving out of Oklahoma City, why on earth do you need 5,000 administration (and that is what an office job is) jobs in Ft. Worth when you are based out of Oklahoma City????

Although if they are willing to buy a tower in Ft. Worth as opposed to try and build another campus maybe they will consider building downtown...but I wouldn't count on it, this just proves that McClendon doesn't care about Oklahoma and their stupid ad campaigns are just a PR stunt.

I think your wrong on every count; time will tell.

[sethsrott]

Well, I might be wrong, and I hope so, but if Chesapeake starts getting a larger presence in Ft. Worth than in OKC, I don't think that Ft. Worth is stupid, they will try and solicit Chesapeake to bring it's 2,000 home office jobs to downtown Ft. Worth, and if they give an incentive package that is big enough then there is no telling what could happen.

[autoMATTic]

While I do not believe anything negative for OKC will come out of this, it sure does make me squirm. They hired a great PR/VP for Ft. Worth. However, she should take note that any PR about an OKC-based company expanding in Texas does not settle well with OKCitians (Kerr-McGee, etc.).

This is a great thing for CHK. Nevertheless, the comments from the Ft. Worth VP were sprinkled with a dash of scary.

[Pete]

Cool-looking building:

[MikeLucky]

This is disgusting, I knew that Chesapeake didn't care about downtown, but for them to pull a stunt like this! I think this could be the beginging of Chesapeaks moving out of Oklahoma City, why on earth do you need 5,000 administration (and that is what an office job is) jobs in Ft. Worth when you are based out of Oklahoma City????

Although if they are willing to buy a tower in Ft. Worth as opposed to try and build another campus maybe they will consider building downtown...but I wouldn't count on it, this just proves that McClendon doesn't care about Oklahoma and their stupid ad campaigns are just a PR stunt.

Seriously????? Well since CHK's wealth is built on the Barnett Shale which happens to be in Texas, then it sure makes sense.....

And do you honestly think Aubrey is overpaying for anything and everything near his OKC campus to go ahead and abandon it?

C'mon, use some common sense.....

[Nawfside OKC]

yeah i don't think they will buy all that stuff on western just to up and move to Texas.

anyway Devon are the "hometown boys" that a willing to make monumental downtown financial investements.

[sethsrott]

Oh, I guess that him buying $40,000,000 worth of Lake Michigan shoreline means that he is devoted to Michigan... nope, I see what he is doing around his campus as pure investment, he has jacked to prices of the surrounding land so far above market value that he would be able to sell those in a heart beat...also, wasn't there talk on a another thread about a University? hmm... thats a thought Aubrey moves Chesapeake to Ft. Worth and uses his campus to open a new private university in Oklahoma City... after all he has a housing development on Lake Michigan whats to say that he won't diversify into education as well?

[BDP]

Well since CHK's wealth is built on the Barnett Shale which happens to be in Texas, then it sure makes sense.....

Then why does anyone care when outsiders buy Oklahoma companies and move their offices elsewhere, even when the revenue from the bought Oklahoma company still comes from Oklahoma?

There's no question that their economic impact is focused in Texas. It looks like they employ 2 and a half times the workforce there.

As for whether it makes sense to overpay for property in Nichols Hills to gut it and build a campus there, while consolidating their Ft Worth operations into one building downtown there, well... I don't think it's ever made any sense, but people here don't seem to mind, I guess.

[metro]

That is an awesome building in Ft. Worth. Would love to see it in downtown OKC.

[Nixon7]

Lol metro, you got a link? I think you got a lot of people fooled today...

[kevinpate]

no april fools .. in the paper, and yes, it is an awesome bldg,as Pete's images reflect so well

[tuck]

That is an awesome building in Ft. Worth. Would love to see it in downtown OKC.

This building was severely damaged in the tornado that hit Downtown Fort Worth a few years ago. As you can see, they rebuilt it very nicely.

[Nixon7]

no april fools .. in the paper, and yes, it is an awesome bldg,as Pete's images reflect so well

Gotcha. Here's a link.

Star-Telegram.com: | 03/31/2008 | Chesapeake Energy buying Pier 1 building in Fort Worth

[OKCMallen]

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

[okclee]

I guess Aubrey will be trying to move the Sonics to Ft. Worth now instead of Okc.

[MikeLucky]

According to the article linked above:

"Chesapeake, which currently has 115 employees on two floors in the D.R. Horton building downtown, intends to move 300 to 400 workers into the top seven floors of the 20-story tower, said spokeswoman Julie Wilson. She said the company should have room for up to about 600 workers on those floors."

is it the 300 to 400 employees in this Fort Worth building that makes some of you think Aubrey is going to abandon OKC??????

If there are 5,000 CHK workers in Texas it's because that's where the drilling happens..... they can't hardly drill in the Barnett Shale from OKC....

Plus he is leasing out half of the building to Pier 1 anyway..... and then he now has space to house a number of employees that support the workers in the Shale..... Sounds like a good business decision to me..... not a running, screaming, abandonment of his hometown.... but, hey, what do I know......

[Kerry]

I think the key is indirect employment where most of the workforce is classified. They works have to work where the raw material is located. It would have been nice to Chesapeake in a downtown tower in OKC but it just didn't work out that way. I just don't understand the Campus concept for businesses. They just don't make sense to work in.

[Pete]

It's also clear that CHK strongly prefers to own rather than rent.

Their management team obviously likes real estate as an investment.

[TStheThird]

5,000 directly and indirectly, mostly involved in drilling, production, and finding and negotiating lease holds. You people act like all of the top level execs and engineers, finance and accounting people work in Ft. Worth. They are in OKC. You can't operate your biggest play from 4 hours away. Chesapeake also has a 20 story tower in West Virginia. Big deal...

[moose]

The head of their Barnett operation works out of OKC.