Chesapeake empire marches on

[OKCTalker]

OKC is going to need speculative office space very soon.

It won't happen without financing. Who will provide that - Banks, insurance companies, RIITs, private equity?

[Pete]

Banks actually have lots of money to lend and they need to put it to work in order to generate revenue.

Given the emerging market conditions, it shouldn't be that hard for a developer to pre-lease a decent amount of space and thus obtain financing.


Or, you may see those with deeper pockets just fund some buildings themselves or leverage their existing holdings.

[SharkSandwich]

Chesapeake just (1/13/12) bought the Harvey Parkway Building on NW 63rd for $10 million.

I just saw on the Chamber site that CHK now has 4,000 employees and is obviously still growing very quickly. I don't see how they are going to accommodate all these people on their campus. To put that into perspective, Devon only has 2,500.

Isn't that vacant lot immediately west of the Harvey Parkway Building for sale? If so, it seems like CHK would have snapped it up.

[metro]

I posted this on the thread about companies moving downtown but wanted to include it here as well, as it's significant.

In the last twelve months CHK has bought six large suburban office buildings: Atrium Towers I & II, Central Park I & II, Caliber Center and the Park Harvey Building. That is almost 850,000 square feet taken off the market and they are gradually turning tenants out so they can move in their own employees.

1) That's a lot of tenants that will need new space somewhere and 2) the reduction in inventory means much less vacancy in the suburban market (which is considered to be anything outside of downtown).

OKC is going to need speculative office space very soon.

The Park Harvey? Not the one downtown, do you mean Harvey Parkway bldg?

[Pete]

Yes, Harvey Parkway.

I corrected my previous post.

[metro]

Ok good, you threw me off as I didn't think they had bought downtown.

[metro]

I was told about Oncue from the current leaseholder of that Conoco. January is their last month of business and I'm sure things will start to get rolling with Oncue. It's no secret that Oncue and CHK are partners with the CNG station just down the street. There is not a decent gas station or convenience store on that strip of Western so I could definitely see why CHK would have an interest in going through all of this trouble for an Oncue.

Took pics of the future On Cue today:

[IMG]

[Pete]

Thanks metro.

The Conoco is closed, correct?

[metro]

I'm not sure. No cars were there as you can see, but the inside looked open, lights were on. You can kinda tell in the pics.

[Skyline]

I'm not sure. No cars were there as you can see, but the inside looked open, lights were on. You can kinda tell in the pics.

Also looks like the fuel pricing has been removed from the exterior signage.

[Skelly Girl]

Isn't that vacant lot immediately west of the Harvey Parkway Building for sale? If so, it seems like CHK would have snapped it up.

Well as of today CHK is dumping and leveling dirt by the truckloads
on that lot... so guess it got snapped up in the CHK Kingdom

[metro]

I took new pics yesterday, will post later.

[Pete]

Strangely, Chesapeake has turned their Christmas lights tonight.

I know they never took down the ones on the construction cranes but tonight they turned on a bunch of the tree lights as well.

[jn1780]

Strangely, Chesapeake has turned their Christmas lights tonight.

I know they never took down the ones on the construction cranes but tonight they turned on a bunch of the tree lights as well.

Its for valentines day.

[metro]

OnCue site:

[Downtown_OKC]

The beginning of the end for CHK? Interesting article written by Forbes.... http://www.forbes.com/sites/christop...sperate-times/

[Pete]

Welcome to the forum, Downtown_OKC.

He have a separate thread for Chesapeake business practices here:

http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=26031&page=7

[workman45]

The beginning of the end for CHK? Interesting article written by Forbes.... http://www.forbes.com/sites/christop...sperate-times/

Rats! The site isn't responding.

[bombermwc]

Well it's too late for them to vacate and build downtown now, but if they are smart, they might start building some real office space TOWERS where they are instead of that stupid campus crap they have. When you run out of horizontal, you go vertical...unless you're CHK and you just keep getting fatter...and uglier. A couple of 15 story buildings would do them good with a few parking garages to boot.

[Pete]

Yes, their configuration is already incredibly inefficient. Some of these buildings are going to be close to a mile apart.

However, their current Planned Unit Development calls for nothing over six floors. They could change that but they already have most their campus planned out at that height or lower.

Also, they simply can't build enough of these small buildings to house their employees, which is why they are buying buildings miles from their campus. I pointed this out earlier but it has been taking them about 2 years to complete any building while Devon will have moved in their first employees within 2.5 years; and they are building 1.8 million square feet all at once.

CHK has been working on their campus for over a decade and is no where close to finishing.

[betts]

We could sell them the rubber tire trolleys. I was thinking we need them for the state capitol, as there are ridiculous distances between buildings and parking there, but perhaps Chesapeake would like a great deal on some barely used vehicles.

[metro]

They'd convert them to NG

[Pete]

^

Great ideas!

[G.Walker]

did anyone figure out why Chesapeake bought that old hotel just south of I-40 west of town?

[metro]

did anyone figure out why Chesapeake bought that old hotel just south of I-40 west of town?

They have lots of operations in western OK, maybe they plan on using it for the rig crews?