SandRidge to move downtown.

[Theo Walcott]

It is official.

NewsOK: Kerr-McGee Tower sold

[Misty]

Yeah!

[HOT ROD]

AWESOME!!!!!

THE RETURN OF DOWNTOWN OKC as the business centre!!!!

[tuck]

I love it!!!

[jbrown84]

Sweet. And Rand Elliot is going to redesign Kerr Park!

[Pete]

Thu July 12, 2007
Kerr-McGee Tower sold

Don Mecoy
Business Writer

SandRidge Energy will move its corporate headquarters into the Kerr-McGee Tower in downtown Oklahoma City as part of an innovative three-company deal announced today to restore and repopulate the vacated landmark building.


SandRidge acquired the 30-story tower at 123 Robert S. Kerr Ave. and surrounding buildings and three downtown parking lots from Chesapeake Energy Corp., which obtained all the former Oklahoma City real estate holdings of Kerr-McGee in a transaction with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The amount of the transaction between SandRidge and Chesapeake was not immediately disclosed.

Anadarko last year bought Kerr-McGee in a $17 billion deal. Kerr-McGee’s Oklahoma City office employees were either absorbed or cut loose by the Texas-based company.

SandRidge plans to renovate Kerr-McGee Tower and relocate its base from the Valliance Bank Building later this year or early next year.

“I am very pleased to announce this transaction with Chesapeake whereby SandRidge now owns one of Oklahoma City’s largest and most important buildings,” said Tom L. Ward, SandRidge chairman and chief executive officer.

“Our company is growing very rapidly and the Kerr-McGee Tower is an ideal location for our corporate headquarters,” Ward said. “I look forward to becoming a member of the downtown business community and to contributing to the ongoing renaissance of downtown Oklahoma City.”

Ward co-founded Chesapeake with Aubrey McClendon, but stepped down last year to pursue other interests. However, within three months Ward leveraged his large Chesapeake holdings to buy a controlling stake in Riata Energy in Amarillo, Texas, for $500 million. Ward moved the company’s headquarters to Oklahoma City and renamed it SandRidge.

SandRidge employs about 1,600 people, including more than 200 at its headquarters.

Chesapeake acquired the former Kerr-McGee property in Oklahoma City as part of a joint venture with Anadarko. Chesapeake obtained energy assets in west Texas and western Oklahoma in exchange for $310 million in cash, future cash for development of some of the assets contained in the deal and half of some Chesapeake interests in Loving County, Texas.

The transaction between Chesapeake and Anadarko was negotiated for months, but the Kerr-McGee properties “became the last chip on the table,” McClendon said. However, Chesapeake, with its sprawling campus near NW 63 and Western, has no need for a large downtown building.

McClendon contacted his former partner and friend Ward to see if he was interested in acquiring the downtown properties from Chesapeake. Ward was “very agreeable” to the offer, McClendon said.

“These properties are important to our community and we are happy to return them to local ownership,” McClendon said.

As part of the deal, Chesapeake and SandRidge have agreed to jointly maintain Kerr Park downtown at no cost to Oklahoma City for the next 10 years. The companies have asked Rand Elliot to develop a new plan for the park, McClendon said.

[Pete]

And the dominoes start to fall!

This is the first step towards getting Devon Tower built. Plus, it will bring much more life downtown... KM had been shrinking for quite some time and that property was looking pretty tattered.


Great cooperation by McClendon & Ward to make this happen. Along with Nichols of Devon, our largest employers are really working together for the betterment of the entire community.

[Misty]

So when is MalibuSooner moving to downtown OKC????

[Pete]

I may need to move the world HQ of OKCtalk.com down there soon!

[Misty]

I can see it now......the 80 story OKCtalk building....

[HOT ROD]

lol, that would be kewl!!!

O
K
C
T
a
l
k-Tower!!^^!!

[metro]

Impressive news!!! I'm shocked at how soon this was announced. I had pretty good feelings that this would happen but I thought it would be announced months down the road. Hopefully we'll hear an announcement by American Fidelity soon followed by a Devon Tower!!!!! This will be great and help further reduce the downtown office vacancy rate.

[jbrown84]

Yeah, I'm surprised the news came this fast as well.

[Midtowner]

I'm not sure about American Fidelity. They seem to be doing pretty well with their buildings on Classen. In fact, I think they are important to the success of the Classen area, the Asian district, etc.

I hope they elect to stay put.

[Pete]

The top half will be residential (the top 5 floors will be my personal penthouse and site of many OKCTalk cocktail parites) and be attached to a multi-story retail development featuring a Whole Foods AND Trader Joe's:

[Easy180]

The top half will be residential (the top 5 floors will be my personal penthouse and site of many OKCTalk cocktail parites) and be attached to a multi-story retail development featuring a Whole Foods AND Trader Joe's:

Finally an OKCTalk event I want to attend

[HOT ROD]

^ very nice tower, Malibu. Sort of looks like the middle finga, to everyone who put down OKC in the past.... lol.

^^ hopefully AF will absorb the space when Devon vacates and moves into its tower. AF could still have a presence on Classen, but the HQ could/should be located in downtown - say Mid America Tower (19-storeys, perfect for a HQ of a local business) while all of the admin, sales, and agents/ect could remain at classen.

We need to make downtown (esp the CBD) the centre of business/finance/commerce for the metro (and state). This means, we need heavy hitting hq and regional offices to be based in downtown. We could/should backoffice elsewhere in the metro.

I also hope we keep NW Business District filled, since OKC has two downtowns. We need all to flourish - but ESPECIALLY downtown big city!!!

Kudos to SandRidge!!! and hopefully soon, AF, Devon, Piper, and Northrup Grumman; among others!!! Very Exciting Times for Oklahoma City (and mostly probably due to the success/visibility of the Hornets/NBA as well as the big conventions).

Just imagine when we finally get our permanent NBA team by next year!!!

[HOT ROD]

I Like OKCBusiness's story better. ...


Removed OKC Business's Article at their request.

According to them, it's okay to summarize and post a link but not copy and paste the entire article.

[Pete]

Yep, if we can land the Sonics and get a major convention hotel along with Devon Tower and a couple of other local companies to move their HQ's to the CBD, I think it will once again be the prestigious place to have your address.

It really has to be that way because parking is always a bit more of a hassle, rents can be a little higher, commutes longer, etc. There has to be good reasons for companies to locate there and I think we've finally started to turn the corner in that respect.


BTW, I want to give props to Aubrey McClendon for helping make this happen. We all give him a bit of a hard time for so much new construction outside the CBD but he's done a great thing for OKC here.

[HOT ROD]

Same goes to Tom Ward of SandRidge!

THANKS FOR BELIEVING IN DOWNTOWN OKLAHOMA CITY. With this 'injection', this will surely help downtown return to the premier address listing in the state!

[Doug Loudenback]

There's another nice article about this in Business Wire, Chesapeake Energy Corporation Announces Acquisition of Kerr-McGee Tower from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and Subsequent Sale of Tower to SandRidge Energy, Inc.

This is sooo fine!

[Karried]

Fri July 13, 2007
3-way deal: Kerr-McGee tower sold

By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

SandRidge Energy Inc. will move its headquarters to downtown's Kerr-McGee tower this year in a deal that ranks as one of the biggest and most complicated local real estate transactions in decades.


The $22.3 million sale — part of a $310 million property transaction — was rumored for weeks, but shocked many because it included a third player: Chesapeake Energy Corp., which was co-founded by SandRidge CEO Tom Ward. Chesapeake bought the former Kerr-McGee Corp. headquarters from Anadarko Petroleum Corp., based in The Woodlands, Texas, and then sold it SandRidge.
"Our company is growing very rapidly and the Kerr-McGee tower is an ideal location for our corporate headquarters,” Ward said in a news release Thursday. "I look forward to becoming a member of the downtown business community and to contributing to the ongoing renaissance of downtown Oklahoma City.”
Growing Oklahoma holdings
Ward co-founded Chesapeake with Aubrey McClendon, but stepped down last year to pursue other interests. Within three months, Ward leveraged his large Chesapeake holdings to buy a controlling stake in Riata Energy in Amarillo, Texas, for $500 million. Ward moved the company's headquarters to Oklahoma City and renamed it SandRidge, just as Kerr-McGee was being acquired by Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum.

SandRidge, which employed just three people in Oklahoma a year ago, now employs 1,600, including 275 people at its offices in Valliance Tower and other locations in northwest Oklahoma City.

Thursday's acquisition includes a 512-space, on-site garage, three older adjoining buildings and three surface parking lots along Broadway.
The company plans to phase its move with employees making the transition through early 2008. Renovations would include construction of a restaurant and fitness center.

A three-way deal
The deal is reminiscent of an old-fashioned poker game between emerging giants in the energy business.


Both SandRidge and American Fidelity Assurance Co. bid for the tower after it was vacated last year.

But it was Chesapeake Energy that won the bidding for Kerr-McGee tower as part of a larger joint venture with Anadarko. The deal announced Thursday includes an agreement in which Chesapeake obtained energy assets from Anadarko in west Texas and western Oklahoma in exchange for $310 million in cash and future cash for development of some of the assets. In exchange, Anadarko gets half of some Chesapeake interests in Loving County, Texas.
The transaction between Chesapeake and Anadarko was negotiated for months, but the Kerr-McGee properties "became the last chip on the table,” McClendon said Thursday. However, Chesapeake, with its sprawling campus near NW 63 and Western, has no need for a large downtown building.

McClendon saw the deal as an opportunity to bring life back to one of downtown's most prominent skyscrapers, and also restore luster to the adjoining Kerr Park — a legacy of his great-uncle and Kerr McGee founder Robert S. Kerr.

"I contacted my friend and Chesapeake co-founder Tom Ward to see if he would be interested in acquiring the tower from us and helping restore and maintain Kerr Park,” McClendon said. "Tom was very agreeable to my offer.”

The pair are hiring an old friend — architect Rand Elliott — to develop a new plan for the park. The park, which has fountains, picnic tables, gardens and an amphitheater, was a downtown hot spot when McClendon's father, Joe McClendon, worked at Kerr McGee in the 1970s.

Big relief for downtown
Thursday's announcement was a cause for celebration downtown, where a much-heralded renaissance was marred by the sobering loss of a company that was the city's leading corporate citizen for more than a half century. As the last employees left the tower, Mayor Mick Cornett and others worried that landmark would become another troubled vacant property.



"This is about the biggest real estate deal we've had in quite some time,” Cornett said. "It puts important properties into friendly hands.”
Cornett suggested a local buyer is preferable to an out-of-state buyer.

He also thinks the deal could result in development on other properties included in the sale, including the Broadway parking lots bought by SandRidge and 70 acres owned by Chesapeake along the south shore of the Oklahoma River at Western Avenue, just east of the former Downtown Airpark.

"We've seen what can happen with out-of-state investors and people who have absolutely no emotional tie to the property — typically it doesn't go that well,” Cornett said.

Brett Hamm, president of Downtown Oklahoma City Inc., called SandRidge "exactly the type of company” he and others hoped would take ownership at 123 Robert S. Kerr Ave.

"Tom Ward is a proven business leader who has now not only built one significant company in Oklahoma City, but two,” Hamm said. Contributing: Business Writers Don Mecoy, Adam Wilmoth and Ja'Rena Lunsford.

[SOONER8693]

Anyone have a clue, estimate, guess when we might hear some news from Devon, if any?

[metro]

I suspect later in the year. Perhaps late Q3 or Q4 at the earliest. Maybe sooner if American Fidelity announces something. Also, there are 4 or so good articles about the Sandridge move in today's Daily Oklahoman. I tried posting them but the website gremlins still aren't letting me post larger posts. Only posts that are shorter than 4 sentences.

[Pete]

Ward: Sale will further downtown renaissance
by Jerry Shottenkirk
The Journal Record
7/13/2007

OKLAHOMA CITY – While standing along Robert S. Kerr Avenue, Tom Ward cranked his head toward the top of the Kerr-McGee Tower and quietly asked rhetorically, and with a smile, “Pretty building, isn’t it?”

Ward has been a significant part of the local oil and gas industry for two decades, and now he’ll be a significant part of downtown Oklahoma City.

SandRidge Energy, the company Ward acquired last year, will occupy the Kerr-McGee Tower, which has been for the most part vacant since Anadarko acquired Kerr-McGee last summer.

Ward said SandRidge, which has 2,200 total employees, including 300 in Oklahoma City, already has two floors of the tower leased.

“We sent out a (memo) to employees there will be nothing new in the next 60 days,” said Ward, who last year bought Amarillo, Texas-based Riata Energy, changed the name to SandRidge and became chief executive officer. “Some employees are already here and all will be here in 2008.”

Ward, who co-founded Chesapeake Energy with Aubrey McClendon, said the reason for the acquisition was multi-fold.

“We needed the room; we are in parts of three different buildings,” said Ward, whose headquarters is currently in The Tower on Northwest Expressway. “Now we will have plenty of room. I don’t know right now how much we will use or lease. It is big enough that all of our growth will be in one building.”

Ward said filling a rather important gap in downtown was another reason.

“We are thrilled to be part of the renaissance of downtown Oklahoma City,” Ward said. “Anadarko Energy and Chesapeake both knew we were interested and we are glad it worked out like this.”

SandRidge acquired the properties as part of a three-way deal with Anadarko (of The Woodlands, Texas) and locally based Chesapeake. Ward said an existing lawsuit regarding some of the former Kerr-McGee buildings on the block is still pending. “We’ll see what happens with that. To start, we’ll hire an architectural firm to see what can be done (with the block).”

SandRidge has been on the move in one way or another since Ward bought the majority of it. Last month, the company filed an initial public offering.

“We have unique assets in West Texas,” he said. “We have 36 rigs and 30 are in one field in that area. We needed capital; that’s why we did the IPO.”

Under Ward’s leadership, SandRidge has been involved in the community, most notably in child advocacy. As the company grows, so will the company’s participation in local charities, he said.

In the past companies have moved out of the city and state. But the local industry is on solid ground, Ward said.

“Oklahoma City has been very good for the energy business for the past 10 years,” Ward said. “Dominion and Kerr-McGee left, but we have two of the largest independents in Chesapeake and Devon. Companies will stay here because Oklahoma City will continue to have a great work ethic and it will continue to be a great place to live. Especially once the city gets a NBA team, things will really grow.”

Ward is part of the group that owns pro basketball’s Seattle SuperSonics and the Seattle Storm of the WNBA.

The move downtown will strengthen the industry in the state, said Bruce Bell, chairman emeritus of Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association of Oklahoma.

“I think this says super things for Oklahoma City and the industry in Oklahoma,” Bell said “It documents two things: it means SandRidge is making Oklahoma City its permanent home, and it means SandRidge intends to grow significantly. The move fills a big void downtown. It’s a win-win for Oklahoma and SandRidge.”

Bell said Oklahoma City is a strong player in oil and gas, and with another company showing growth, it will become a target for some industry workers.

“Houston may be recognized as the center of the industry, but we now have several major companies here, and what that means is jobs will remain and that people will be willing to move to Oklahoma City from places like Houston,” he said. “It’s a real positive thing for gaining new people in the business. The city should be delighted.”

Bell said Oklahoma City is behind Houston but is close to being even with Dallas in the energy world.

“Having companies like Devon, Chesapeake and now SandRidge says good things about your city,” he said.

Vince White, vice president of communications and investor relations at Devon, said SandRidge will be a boost to the business district.

“Devon is a big supporter of downtown Oklahoma and we think SandRidge will make a great addition to area,” White said. “It’s great for the industry. SandRidge is a significant employer of highly compensated employees. And based on Tom Ward’s track record, you’d expect significant growth. SandRidge will bring more quality jobs downtown.”