Three Eldridge Place has laid vacant for close to two years as a tough economic environment took its toll on the city’s commercial property market but deals have now been struck on all its available office space, according to Houston-based Chron.com.
Kristen Rabel from CB Richard Ellis, which is the leasing agency for the building, told the website that her company was keen to find the right deal with a large-scale corporate operator, with BP eventually fitting the bill.
“We didn’t want to discount it and give it away,” she is quoted as saying.
Texas is among the leading office space destinations in the world for energy companies including BP, with Houston and Dallas the leading cities in the region, but even some of the world’s biggest oil and energy companies put their expansion plans on hold as economic prospects became increasingly uncertain in recent months.
BP reportedly committed to occupying half the available office space at Three Eldridge Place in Houston earlier this year but subsequently decided that a deal on the entire property was the right way forward.
BP is best known as an oil production giant but its new offices in Houston are set to house some of its renewable energy experts currently based in offices either in Chicago or San Francisco.
Rabel from CB Richard Ellis suggested that the prospects for office space in Houston’s Energy Corridor are picking up and that expansion plans are being re-initiated in the city’s well-known sub-market.
Editor’s notes: As of July 2023, BP’s Houston address was 501 Westlake Park Boulevard. Also known as Westlake One, the property also acted as the company’s US headquarters.
As part of the fit-out, which was managed by architect Gensler, BP also retained WeWork to design two of the floors of the building to incorporate a coworking feel into the space.
As of July 2023, oil company Exxon Mobil occupied the 385-acre campus in Houston.
BP is the 8th largest oil and gas company in the world with a market cap (as of July 14th 20230 of $105.92 billion. Exxon Mobil is the 2nd with a market cap of $422.65 billion and Saudi Aramco is the largest with a market cap of $2.077 trillion.