Howard Hughes snags key sites
Firm buys old Anadarko HQ, ConocoPhillips campus
Howard Hughes Corp. said Monday that it has bought both the former Anadarko Petroleum headquarters in The Woodlands and the old ConocoPhillips campus in the Energy Corridor from Occidental Petroleum for $565 million.
Oxy will remain in the old Anadarko towers — recently renamed The Woodlands Towers at The Waterway — with a 13-year lease of 100 percent of the larger tower at 1201 Lake Robbins Drive and 100 percent of a 125,000-square-foot warehouse nearby. The Howard Hughes Corp. will relocate its corporate headquarters from Dallas into the second tower at 9950 Woodloch Forest Drive.
Before Occidental became a bidder for Anadarko this spring, Oxy planned to move into the old ConocoPhillips campus along the Energy Corridor. But after Oxy acquired Anadarko for $38 billion, the campus could no longer accommodate their combined staff. Instead, Oxy maintained its headquarters at Greenway Plaza in Houston and continued use of the old Anadarko towers as it decided what to with its excess real estate.
The sale helps offset some of the nearly $40 billion debt Oxy assumed to acquire Anadarko in the biggest energy sector transaction of three years.
“The sale of office complexes in the Houston Energy Corridor and The Woodlands is part of our plan to divest non-core assets and continue to improve the strength of our balance sheet,” said Vicki Hollub, chief executive of Oxy, in a release.
While the Howard Hughes Corp. agreed to purchase the old ConocoPhillips campus, it said it will immediately list it for resale. It said the 63-acre, 1.3-millionsquare-foot campus, which en
compasses 17 office buildings, does not fall in line with its core business of master-planned communities.
Cristina Carlson, spokeswoman for the Howard Hughes Corp., said in an email that the company agreed to buy the former ConocoPhillips campus as a way to help its offer for The Woodlands towers stand out from those of other potential buyers. Carlson said the company would consider selling the campus in one piece or in parts.
Howard Hughes Corp. is the developer behind The Woodlands, and the deal not only secured it a long-term tenant in the heart of its master-planned community — it also acquired 9.3 acres of land ripe for development in The Woodlands Town Center along the waterway and I-45 N.
Paul Layne, chief executive of Howard Hughes Corp., said in a statement that the deal would allow the company “to respond to the growing need for premium office space as companies are looking to relocate and expand within The Woodlands.”
The company declined to specify how many employees will move from Dallas to its new headquarters in The Woodlands, but said it will not take up all of the office space at 9950 Woodloch Forest Drive. It will offer the remaining high-end office space in the building for lease, Carlson said.
The Howard Hughes Corp. announced earlier this year it planned to focus on growing its master-planned communities across the country. As part of that plan, the company said it would reduce overhead expenses by as much as $50 million per year and sell some $2 billion worth of properties in order to repurchase shares.
Howard Hughes Corp.’s stock rose about 1 percent Monday to close at $126.61 a share. Howard Hughes Corp. announced the real estate deal with Occidental after stock markets closed.
Includes previous reporting by Jordan Blum and Nancy Sarnoff