By Ralph Bivins
Driven by the expansion of domestic fracking, ConocoPhillips will move 2,100 employees into two new office towers in the Energy Corridor area of West Houston.
The two towers are being developed Trammell Crow Co. in partnership with Principal Real Estate Investors at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and North Eldridge Parkway, near the ConocoPhillips headquarters building.
The employees in the new towers will mostly be assigned to projects in the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin of Texas and the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, according to a report by Nancy Sarnoff of the Houston Chronicle. With the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, production in these domestic oil plays has taken off, creating thousands of jobs across the nation. Houston, known as the Energy Capital of the World, leads the nation in the growth of new jobs and housing starts.
ConocoPhillips leased 850,000 sf in two new buildings: all of Energy Center Three, a 20-story tower under construction, and half of the 22-story Energy Center Four, scheduled for a 2013 ground breaking.
In addition to these two buildings, Trammell Crow has an adjacent six acres where another building is planned