‘FROM DEFENSE TO OFFENSE’
Chesapeake Energy sells properties outside campus
Chesapeake Energy Corp. last month sold nine properties surrounding its Oklahoma City headquarters for about $9 million, continuing efforts to shed nearby real estate that is no longer part of the company’s strategy.
“We are pleased to have sold a series of properties adjacent to our Oklahoma City campus, and we continue to market a few remaining properties in the surrounding area that were purchased under prior leadership,” Chesapeake spokesman Gordon Pennoyer said in a statement.
The nine properties sold for prices ranging from $342,000 to $2.56 million and generally are along the western edge of the Chesapeake campus, along Western Avenue between NW 55 Street and NW 63 Street.
Under the leadership of co-founder and former CEO Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake spent more than $170 million buying up office properties outside its core campus in the several years leading up to McClendon’s 2013 departure from the company.
The company’s master plan at one time included development of upscale shopping centers, restaurants, hotels, condominiums, helipads and entertainment venues.
Chesapeake since has sold off most of its larger off-campus properties — including Nichols Hills Plaza, Classen Curve and the Triangle at Classen Curve — narrowing its focus on oil and natural gas development.
“We’ve significantly reduced our real estate footprint across Oklahoma and
other areas. We’re about where we want to be,” Chesapeake CEO Doug Lawler said in a December 2016 interview with
The Oklahoman. “We still have a number of real estate properties where we don’t have plans to develop. They’re scattered across the city or in various locations across the country, but our significant sales are behind us.
“We’ve seen some good progress this year with real estate sales, but we still have some properties. If it makes sense for shareholders that we sell them, we’ll do it. But the bulk of the real estate sales are behind us.”
Following the most recent sales, Chesapeake still owns 75 acres of industrially and commercially zoned land north of its campus and south of Wilshire Boulevard. The company also has several tracts of industrial- and commercial-zoned land near Interstate 40 and Radio Road in El Reno.