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.