Downtown Office Leases

[Pete]

CHK already has employees spread out all over the city and they OWN these buildings; not like these are just temporary lease situations. And they are plowing tons of money into these buildings they are acquiring, completely renovating them floor by floor.

So, if they are already spread from 63rd and Portland to Lincoln and I-44 -- and several places in between -- why not have some employees downtown, too?


I wonder if they regret their entire campus proposition. They are still nowhere close to having enough space for their staff and simply can't build 4-5 story buildings fast enough. They've been under constant construction there for 10 years and are still a long way off. Plus, even if they completely build things out to plan, some of their campus buildings will be a mile apart (literally) and they'll have people in 30 separate buildings.

Compare that to Devon who will soon have everyone all in the same complex and will have accomplished this goal in just a few years. In fact, the new tower was brought about because they had employees in four buildings, all much closer together than the buildings on the current CHK campus.

[wschnitt]

Does anyone know where QuiBids is located? What is the chance that they move downtown, if they are not there already?

Apparently they started downtown and did not like it, so they moved to the Valiance Bank Tower.

[metro]

Not to mention IF CHK builds a spec tower, with Devon wrapping up, it would put CHK in the spotlight for the next few years, which Aubrey loves competing with them for attention.

[Pete]

Another interesting comparison between CHK & Devon...

From groundbreaking to move-in, Devon Tower will be about a 2.5 year project. And of course, the huge parking garage was done a long time ago as was their health center.

It takes CHK about 2 years to get people into one of their small buildings once they start construction. If you follow the progress on Building 15 for example, they started in Feb of 2011 and a year later they are nowhere near finished -- still don't even have all the steel up, let alone all the finish work that is necessary. Similarly, they started on Building 14 in August 2010 and are nowhere close to wrapping that up, either.

[MDot]

You would think the simple thing to do would be to just build a skyscraper or two downtown and get it over with.

[HOT ROD]

and turn the Chesapeake Campus buildings into a new University.

[Spartan]

It almost seems sluggish. CHK, who is ridiculously over-paying for everything, isn't as financially solvent as Devon, who paid for the entire tower in cash.

[OklahomaNick]

It almost seems sluggish. CHK, who is ridiculously over-paying for everything, isn't as financially solvent as Devon, who paid for the entire tower in cash.

Just different philosophies of different CEO's. That's why Ward and McClendon split..

[Just the facts]

and turn the Chesapeake Campus buildings into a new University.

That is one of the problems with a sprawling campus office. If the company leaves then the community is left with basically a useless bunch of buildings that are not suited to small users. I worked for a while next to Cisco's campus in Milpitas. They have dozens of buildings, all of them looking exactly the same, sourrounded by acres of surface parking, and nearly all of them empty. It looked like a scene from "Life After People". At least with an office tower individual floors can be leased out if they aren't needed.

[Pete]

Looks like Covenant Investors is moving from Hefner Pointe to Oklahoma Tower, as there is a $245K building permit to remodel 6,777 square feet in that building.

[OklahomaNick]

Downtown is definitely a buzz!
Pete, do you know the vacancy level of Oklahoma Tower?

[Pete]

At the end of 2011 (before this new lease) Price Edwards showed Oklahoma Tower as 93% occupied.

Everything else downtown is also pretty full, with the exception of the First National Center at 50% vacancy.

The one surprising example is City Place which is show at 48% vacant.

[OklahomaNick]

The one surprising example is City Place which is show at 48% vacant.

Who reps City Place? P.Edwards?

[Pete]

Levy Beffort - Grubb & Ellis

[SoonerDave]

From the FNC thread:

http://noodlestream.com/press/noodle...-oklahoma-city

Anyone know what's become of this particular co? Such a strange-named company it stuck in my head, and I remembered hearing there was some upper management shakeups/departures recently...?

[Pete]

$100K building permit to remodel one of the floors at 3 E. Main but I have no idea who is moving in...

Has this building had any tenants since it was renovated a couple of years ago?

[Urbanized]

No, the renovation was not completed. Honestly, I think they were just taking their time. Maybe stepped back from the project for a bit when the economy soured? Standley Systems is on office machine sales and service company based in Chickasha, but also with an Oklahoma City office. Nice folks; they were an advertising client of mine years ago. I don't know if they are going to be using the whole building, but it is their building and their renovation.

[wschnitt]

That building has come a long way since this picture.

[metro]

Yeah pretty sure Standley is taking their time on a pay as you go basis and occupying the whole thing.

[Urbanized]

That building has come a long way since this picture.

Also true. And they have been working pretty steadily for past couple of months at least.

[warreng88]

Northwest Oil & Gas Exploration buys downtown OKC office
By Sarah Terry-Cobo
The Journal Record
Posted: 07:05 PM Thursday, March 8, 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY – Downtown businesses will soon gain another neighbor from the energy industry. The city’s first office condominium recently sold its last space to Northwest Oil & Gas Exploration LLC in the 125 Park Avenue Building at 825 N. Broadway Ave. The company will be moving from its Nichols Hills office on May 1, said President Kevin A. Burshears
“We obviously want to stay active in the community and with other companies; it helps being close to the other companies,” Burshears said regarding their decision to relocate downtown.

According to the county assessor’s office, the 5,000-square-foot office space sold for $320,000 on Feb. 17. The company will occupy the lower level of the five-story building.

Rick Pritchett, a broker with Precor Ruffin Properties, managed the sale.

“This was the first office condominium project in Oklahoma City and this was the last piece of the puzzle, if you will, in this project,” he told The Journal Record in a telephone interview.

The building was initially purchased and renovated for oil and gas companies that wanted downtown office space, but did not want 100,000 square feet, Pritchett said. The space was divided into 5,000-square-foot plates to make it more attractive to these companies. Northwest Oil & Gas purchased the last available space, but is the only energy company in the building.

The company is planning on expanding to add about five more employees, Burshears said. It employs 12 people and about eight contractors, he said. The oil and gas exploration company’s new office will be within blocks of other major energy companies, including SandRidge, Devon and Continental Resources, which is scheduled to finish relocation from Enid by the end of the year.

http://journalrecord.com/2012/03/08/...e-real-estate/

[Just the facts]

And the good news just keeps rolling in.

[HOT ROD]

keep em coming!

this is exactly what we need, FILLIN companies. We need the big announcements, but we also MOSTLY need these small and smaller companies to fill in the little spaces.

[GaryOKC6]

The fact that they bought the space shows that they are here to stay as well. The 125 Park Ave building is actually at 125 Park Avenue although eh article said it was at 825 N. Broadway. I believe it is next door to the Chamber building.

[MrsArnall]

$100K building permit to remodel one of the floors at 3 E. Main but I have no idea who is moving in...

Has this building had any tenants since it was renovated a couple of years ago?

http://newsok.com/article/3654184

Public Strategies plans move Project management firm Public Strategies has leased a 109-year-old, 35,550-square-foot building at 3 E Main St. in Bricktown to relocate its corporate office.

Read more: http://newsok.com/article/3654184#ixzz1p0sTRpYG