Chevron leases original Enron building

Chevron continues its push to occupy all available downtown offie space.

After remaining a dark spot on the Houston skyline for the past few years, the former Enron headquarters will be coming to life again next year.

Chevron plans to lease the glass tower at 1400 Smith St., which has 1.3 million square feet. The California-based company said it plans to bring the majority of its local work force downtown.

The 50-story tower was sold in 2003 after Enron's collapse in 2001. The building has remained vacant ever since.

New York-based Brookfield Properties Corp. said Thursday it purchased the building, now known as Four Allen Center, for $120 million and leased the entire property to Chevron USA.

When I worked downtown at 1600 Smith Street, we referred to our next-door neighbor as "the Speed Stick building". My most vivid memory of it is from after a tornado touched down and passed over it in 1993, blowing out a huge number of its windows. That took a couple of months to fully repair.

Last February, in its effort to bring most of the operations together, Chevron leased 465,000 square feet in the Continental Center I building at 1600 Smith. It also owns and occupies 1500 Louisiana, another former Enron tower that Chevron purchased in 2004.

As noted in February, there were a few bumps in the road for Chevron in its attempt to lease the new Enron building. I blogged about that here, here, here, and here.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 09, 2006 to Elsewhere in Houston | TrackBack