Chesapeake empire marches on

[Pete]

Weird to see so few cars in their surface lots:

[Oski]

Imagine transforming it into a cutting-edge college campus for AI, robotics, space exploration, and nanomaterials—Oklahoma Institute of Technology. It has the perfect vibe, where innovation meets futuristic technology. Picture labs filled with advanced AI systems, robotics, and students tackling projects that push the boundaries of science and engineering. It's more than just a school—it's the launchpad for Oklahoma's future.

[BoulderSooner]

Imagine transforming it into a cutting-edge college campus for AI, robotics, space exploration, and nanomaterials—Oklahoma Institute of Technology. It has the perfect vibe, where innovation meets futuristic technology. Picture labs filled with advanced AI systems, robotics, and students tackling projects that push the boundaries of science and engineering. It's more than just a school—it's the launchpad for Oklahoma's future.

have an extra 10 billion sitting around??

[Oski]

I guess $10B won't be enough.

[gopokes88]

You could throw $100B at it and it wouldn't matter. It's where the talent and institutional support is. It would take a seismic shift to get a true exodus out of Silicon Valley. Even Austin just lost Oracle to Nashville. Peter Thiel just recently talked about it on Joe Rogan.

[bison34]

Imagine transforming it into a cutting-edge college campus for AI, robotics, space exploration, and nanomaterials—Oklahoma Institute of Technology. It has the perfect vibe, where innovation meets futuristic technology. Picture labs filled with advanced AI systems, robotics, and students tackling projects that push the boundaries of science and engineering. It's more than just a school—it's the launchpad for Oklahoma's future.

The schools it would want to compete against have hundreds of years of cache and alumni, and that alone would make it impossible to succeed. There is a reason there has been what, maybe 3 successful new colleges in the last 50 years. Too much cost, not enough ROi.

[Pete]

Almost all of the old Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) campus on the southeast corner of NW 63rd and Western was officially listed for sale today.




The property spans 103 acres and includes 26 buildings totaling 1.8 million square feet of Class A office space.

There is also a 67,000-square-foot fitness center with two basketball courts, a pool,and climbing wall as well as a sports field with a running track.

Included are four restaurants with full kitchens and seating areas, 4 parking garages with over 3,000 spaces, and 33 acres of undeveloped land. A childcare facility will continue to operate independently.

The campus includes creeks, fountains, and heavy landscaping.

Expand Energy is in the process of consolidating its roughly 1,000 employees into what is known as Building 15 and will retain the parking garage to the south. Building 13 along NW 63rd Street is currently leased to other tenants and will also be retained along with the attached parking structure.

Rand Elliott Architects designed the campus. No asking price is listed.

At one time Chesapeake employed over 5,000 employees on site.

[bison34]

Just hard for me to see a company buying this, unless it's for a corporate relocation. Maybe an investment company to sit on it for a while. It's so much space. I guess it could be turned into housing.

Have you heard anything behind the scenes, Pete?

[Pete]

They have been trying to sell a bunch of the buildings and vacant land -- sometimes individually and sometimes as a lot -- for some time.

They were also looking for a development partner for a while.


There is almost zero demand for office space right now. We've talked about converting the core campus to housing, but that's incredibly expensive because you have to plumb every single unit.

My gut feeling is this is going to sit for a long time. They've effectively been looking for buyers for about a decade.

[Anonymous.]

Government or some type of higher education seems the easiest.

[Pete]

Like office space, higher ed is struggling mightily.

It would almost have to be some combo of hotel and housing, although it's hard to imagine one developer taking all of this on.

[jn1780]

The title of this thread and the current name of the company is pretty ironic.

[Southsider2]

I've been doing some work on some large office properties recently and have noticed that the long-term sentiment is starting to recover a bit. Everyone knows office is getting hammered right now and in the near-term, there will continue to be significant operational/occupancy struggles and continued conversions of obsolete office properties. As discussed up thread COVID/work from home kicked off a shift in demand for the type and size of space and that is becoming more clear now that we're a few years removed from this disruption. The last few years I spoke with multiple owners that were ready to completely divest of their office assets but there's been a noticeable uptick in investors looking to "take a shot" on the long term outlook of large office. There is a significant "discount" today based on the current landscape and in-place operations, if you're willing to bet on the recovery of the office market in the future.

It will be fascinating to see what happens with this property and office in general. Barring any large new entry to the market or a local company expanding/relocating their headquarters, I generally agree that these will sit for a while and likely be sold off in swaths to various users. I've long heard that MFB is interested in some of the campus but that's been floated around for years with no action.

[Pete]

I know at one time, the State took a hard look at some of the larger office buildings in what would have been similar to what they did with the old Sandridge Tower.

I could see them buying the campus through their property ownership arm, then partnering with a developer for the ample open lots.

That seems to be about the only hope for the campus staying office property in the near future.


It all still looks very nice from the outside, but it's almost vacant these days and that's a big drag on the local economy and neighboring businesses.

[gopokes88]

Still surprised Oklahoma City University wasn't interested in any of it to expand their campus.

[Jake]

This would be great for a large HQ relocation or expansion. I don't see how we'd be able to fit any Amazon warehouses here, however.

[Pete]

Still surprised Oklahoma City University wasn't interested in any of it to expand their campus.

Small, private, non-prestigious colleges are really hurting right now and will continue to well into the future.

I can't imagine how any educational institution could come close to the purchase price, especially because most are struggling with what they have now.

[LordGerald]

I know at one time, the State took a hard look at some of the larger office buildings in what would have been similar to what they did with the old Sandridge Tower.

I could see them buying the campus through their property ownership arm, then partnering with a developer for the ample open lots.

That seems to be about the only hope for the campus staying office property in the near future.


It all still looks very nice from the outside, but it's almost vacant these days and that's a big drag on the local economy and neighboring businesses.

The DMV operates out of Building 4. It's under the Service Oklahoma brand. It's the nicest, most dysfunctional building for its use in the entire metro. I go there all the time to pull titles and it's a zoo every single minute of operation. People are nice and competent, but the building wasn't designed for that kind of human traffic.

[HOT ROD]

would make a very nice campus for the federal government, similar to the Federal District in Denver. However, with the efficiency effort this may be a longer term idea than current.

Maybe the city could take a grab, aren't they starved for space? (most similarly sized cities have way more office space than OKC with its one midrise).

[OKCTalker]

The Chesapeake Fitness Center has offered memberships to the public for some time. The facility is very nice, well-maintained and clean. I hope that continues.

[dheinz44]

How many companies based in OKC could realistically fill up all this office space?

[Pete]

How many companies based in OKC could realistically fill up all this office space?

Other than the state, I'd say only Paycom. And they obviously are busy developing their own campus.

Almost all our big employers do not require a large, central HQ: Integris, Mercy, Braum's, Hobby Lobby, the school districts. Even Devon only has about 1,400 employees these days and that campus was built for around 5,000.

Maybe the Chickasaws would buy it as an investment? They seem to be behind almost every large real estate deal in and around OKC.

[SEMIweather]

I believe someone else mentioned this in an aspirational manner earlier in the thread, but a Denver Tech Center style development would be a nice pipe dream for this area, albeit OKC isn’t a tech hub and the industry as a whole seems to be going through some growing pains at the moment.

[Pete]

Until the state gets serious about education and developing skilled workers, we will be fighting for scraps like Canoo.

And there is no energy behind any type of real start-up culture here (also a function of poor education), either, so we're not getting many home-grown companies (Paycom being the notable and almost singular exception).

[ManAboutTown]

How many companies based in OKC could realistically fill up all this office space?

Less than 5, I would say, and all of them would have office space they already own.