Buyer steps up for Chevron Bellaire campus
Chevron’s former Bellaire office complex — a rare 30-acre parcel of urban real estate along the West Loop — has found a buyer.
Houston-based SLS Properties has a contract to purchase the site and plans to build on its vacant land. The sale is expected to close in late September.
“We hope to develop it and be a good neighbor in the future,” said the company’s Danny Sheena, a native Houstonian and longtime Bellaire resident.
Development plans are still in the works. So far, Sheena has submitted an application to the city of Bellaire for a permit that would allow a parking garage to be built on the site. The company is also seeking approval to allow two office buildings on the property to be leased to multiple tenants.
A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for next month at a meeting of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
SLS Properties owns several office buildings in the Houston area. Last year, it purchased two just across the West Loop from the Chevron site. It also develops properties and provides leasing and management services.
The Bellaire property at 4800 Fournace was developed in the 1940s by Chevron predecessor Texaco as a geophysical lab. In early 2016, the San Ramon, Calif.-
based company announced plans to sell it and move 900 employees from the site to its downtown facilities, shaving expenses during the energy downturn.
In a statement, Chevron confirmed the property was under contract and said the terms are confidential.
“Houston, and the State of Texas, remains the global center for our upstream business and other functions, and we expect to continue to be a long-term partner to the city and state,” Chevron said Friday.
The site was appraised by the Harris County Appraisal District at around $67 million as of January 2018.
It houses a 10-story and a six-story building totaling 547,370 square feet. Neither flooded during Hurricane Harvey, according to marketing materials from HFF, the brokerage firm with the listing.
The smaller building was developed in 1965 and the larger one opened about 10 years later. Since 2005, Chevron had invested nearly $100 million in property improvements, according to HFF.
The acreage is just off the northwest corner of the West Loop and Fournace Place with frontage along South Rice. The site is shaped as a rectangle. Much of it is surface parking lots.
The property had long been zoned for a business park.
Last year, the city adopted new development rules for the site that would allow for single-family housing and “lifestyle housing” to provide options for residents at different stages of of life.
Sheena, who is also a lawyer and engineer, said his group will consider options for other portions of the tract after the initial phase of development.
“We’re just very excited to acquire this property,” he said. “We know the property well.”