Count ‘em: That’s a 9-building office park proposed to go in near the Walmart and Splashtown in Spring, south of the ExxonMobil campus. Finial Group is developing — that is, clearing the trees away from a 13-acre parcel just behind all that freeway retail at Whitewood and Louetta Rd.
A poster on HAIF has leaked this rendering that might show what Southwestern Energy is planning to build to consolidate its employees in Springwoods Village. It was first reported to be a 10-story office building on 22 acres at I-45 and the future Grand Pkwy., just south of the ExxonMobil campus.
Set back behind the trees along I-10 and Memorial Dr. and beside the trails of Terry Hershey Park, the ExxonMobil Chemical Company Headquarters have gone up for sale. Marketing firm HHF says that the sale of the 35-acre Energy Corridor property was precipitated by the company’s impending consolidation northwest of here at the under-construction 385-acre campus behind other trees in Spring. Standing now on the property at 13501 Katy Fwy. are a 5-story, 576,968-sq.-ft. office building and a 20,463-sq.-ft. conference center.
And something like this 3-story, 2-building office complex should start going up this spring in Spring, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker. Planned to sit on 7 and a half acres at 460 Wildwood Forest Dr., the 127,794-sq.-ft. Wildwood Corporate Center will be across the street from apartments and about 3 miles north of the ExxonMobil campus being built among comparatively tame woods where 385 acres have been clear-cut around the intersection of I-45, the Hardy Toll Rd., and the likely path of the Grand Pkwy.
Rendering: Houston Business Journal
Where’s all the new office space in Houston? Here, reports Metrostudy’s David Jarvis. The lemming-like red dots cramming together on the Beltway and Katy Fwy. out toward the Grand Parkway denote locations that are already under construction, totaling 12.5 million square feet of new office space. The green dots denote planned locations that would add 6 million more. The ExxonMobil campus up near the Woodlands, reports Jarvis, accounts for almost half of the new construction.
Map: Metro Study Report
Doug Britton thought he had the deal of a lifetime: a contract to buy 101 acres of land (in red on the map) just south of the spot in Spring where — it was rumored at the time — ExxonMobil planned to develop a new corporate campus. And it was available for cheap: just $5 million. Britton contacted two brokers at Bandier Partners to help him move on it.
“Unless I’m missing something, the whole thing seems like an egregious example of waste. You build Greenspoint 30 years ago and then for various reasons it’s no longer ideal, so do you improve it? Revamp it? No, you abandon it all and clear a new forest ten miles north for your new office park. And all the smaller companies that clustered around you there do likewise. And Greenspoint with its hundreds of acres of concrete just sits there like damaged goods.
So what happens in thirty years when Springwoods Village is no longer ideal, when the new wears off? Do you improve it and make it work, or do you jump another ten miles north where there’s another waiting forest and build your new campus there?
The irony is that I’m sure these buildings will be LEED-whatever certified and Exxon will tout itself as a great steward, but any environmentalist will tell you that the real way to conserve is to adapt & reuse, not just wantonly abandon & throw away.” [Mike, commenting on The Next Springwoods Village Rumor]
“So Exxon’s development of Kingwood lacked the office space and subsequent development of Greenspoint lacked the neighborhood? Finally combining the two?
Houston: Stamped out by Exxon, one experiment at a time.” [iMidget, commenting on Comment of the Day: Big Oil Town]
Has it been your lifelong dream to develop a quaint little hotel in the town center of a brand-new 1,800-acre “eco-themed” community in the shadows of the formerly woodsy new suburban-style corporate campus of the world’s largest oil company world’s largest publicly traded oil company? All righty, then: Now’s your chance! CDC Houston announced today that it’s looking for proposals from would-be developers of the very first hotel in Springwoods Village, on a site “in walking or shuttle distance” of ExxonMobil’s humongous new office hub, currently under construction just west of where I-45 spits out the Hardy Toll Rd. The Houston subsidiary of New York real estate firm Coventry Development Corp. plans to reach a total of 1,400 hotel rooms in Springwoods Village eventually. [Previously on Swamplot] Map: Springwoods Village
The official tally of ExxonMobil employees who’ll be working out of the company’s enormous new campus just south of The Woodlands is now up to 10,000, approximately 2,000 more than reported last year. The company announced today that beginning in early 2014, workers from ExxonMobil facilities in Fairfax, Virginia, and Akron, Ohio, will be relocated to buildings now under construction in a new forest clearing west of the intersection of I-45 and the Hardy Toll Rd. Also being brought up to breathe the fresh Spring air: some employees currently working in ExxonMobil’s chemical and research & engineering companies at the Baytown refinery. ExxonMobil says it’ll expand its 385-acre campus to make room for the recently announced newcomers. [Marketwatch; previously on Swamplot] Rendering of new Energy Center: ExxonMobil
What will happen to its well-shaded 44-story downtown headquarters building at 800 Bell St., once ExxonMobil decamps for the new campus the oil giant is building at Houston’s northern reaches? The company “has not announced what will happen to its downtown building,” writes longtime real estate reporter Ralph Bivins about the iconic 1963 tower that houses at its top the storied Petroleum Club. “One of the most interesting rumors we’ve heard about it is that Exxon Mobil will donate the building to the City of Houston for municipal offices. You know, we can’t sell it, so let’s just give it to Annise Parker instead.” [Culturemap] Photo: Flickr user lc_db
“I see nothing wrong with XOM making the move to the Woodlands area. It now creates a third energy corridor in the Houston metro area, and a different environment in which to recruit. CBD has Chevron, BG, Shell, El Paso, Enterprise, etc. Woodlands now will have Anadarko & XOM. BP and service companies are located on the west side. Now you have can have real options on living close to where you work — and the type of lifestyle that you want.” [DJ, commenting on Urban Escape: An ExxonMobil Video Tour and Explanation for Its Enormous New Houston Forest Campus]
“. . . And about those trees. Those are shit trees. I know because I grew up around them, they’re second growth pines that shed pine needles half the year, and disgorge nasty pollen for weeks. They’re not Sequoias. They’re not the original Big Thicket and old growth pine and cypress species. I hate those pine trees.” [Scott Bodenheimer, commenting on Urban Escape: An ExxonMobil Video Tour and Explanation for Its Enormous New Houston Forest Campus]
Yes, ExxonMobil “values the environment.” That’s why the company is building this 385-acre pedestrian-friendly campus with an “urban vibe” — in the middle of the forest 20 miles north of Houston.
Video: ExxonMobil, via Loren Steffy
Comment of the Day: What Would Have Kept ExxonMobil Downtown?
“Exxon pulling up stakes for Springwoods is something that I think Mayor Parker and the Houston Partnership should have worked hard to prevent. Encouraging ExxonMobil to build a new tower or towers in the CBD would have strengthened the core economically, provided food, beverage and hotel jobs downtown, and a built in constituency for Metro. Had this been in Chicago, you better believe the mayor’s office would have fought tooth and nail to insure a marquee name stayed downtown.” [ShadyHeightster, commenting on Headlines: Ben Milam Demo Details; Germantown Makes History]