BP To Sell Headquarters
BP PLC (NYSE: BP) will put its 390,000-square-foot Helios Plaza building in the Energy Corridor up for sale, a BP spokesperson confirmed to the Houston Business Journal.
The news comes less than a week after the HBJ reported the U.K.-based energy giant will put the nearby Westlake Four, a 562,000-square-foot building it does not own, on the sublease market.
BP currently owns and occupies the entire Helios Plaza building, located at the intersection of Interstate 10 and State Highway 6. Once the building is sold, BP will lease back its space from the new owner, the BP spokesperson said.
“This has no impact on BP’s commitment to Houston,” BP’s Jason Ryan said in a statement. “Our Westlake campus is our U.S. headquarters and is home to one of the largest number of BP employees anywhere in the world.”
No changes in regard to the building’s services or amenities are expected to take place, Ryan said. Chicago-based JLL is marketing the building. The LEED Platinum-certified building is six stories and has parking for 1,800 cars.
BP plans to move Westlake Four employees into Helios Plaza and the 949,000-square-foot Westlake One, which it also owns. BP is renovating Westlake One as part of its consolidation efforts. Several building permits show that BP has invested roughly $10 million, so far, into updating some of the office building’s floors. A BP spokesperson said the renovations will “modernize” office floors at Westlake One.
BP will exit the Westlake Four building by the beginning of 2017. The exit is “part of (BP’s) ongoing simplification efforts,” the spokesperson said. It’s unclear how many employees will be moved. BP’s lease at Westlake Four ends in 2023.
BP also has space in Westlake Two and Westlake Three on the sublease market.
In March, a letter BP sent to the Texas Workforce Commission showed that the company expects to cut at least 500 jobs in Harris County this year. At the time, a BP spokesperson said the cuts are part of the 4,000 additional job cuts the London-based company announced in January.
Another energy company that recently put an office building on the market is Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX). Cushman & Wakefield is marketing a 10-story building Chevron owns in Bellaire at 4800 Furnace Place, in addition to other assets the San Ramon, California-based company is trying to offload.
