Exxon moving Corp HQ to Houston (from Irving) (Dallas, Spring: buyers, vs.)

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by spacecitytx

Lol...while I agree, wouldn't that be the case with ANY sector?

What businesses do you think are willing to pay the cost to operate in that area? I figure Energy companies would be in the top 3 of sectors that can afford it.

You have a strong case with the traffic and parking thing though.

Yes but downtown is even more expensive and companies are moving there very often. Just yesterday a major lease was signed for a cyber securities companh

[gwarnecke]

The Ion / Innovation District is hoping to attract tech and medical startups to Midtown, but I'm sure the area would welcome a major HQ if it would land one.

I'd say that area is a better fit for medical (given proximity to the med center) and/or industries who mostly lean on a younger workforce that appreciates inside-the-loop apartment / townhouse living.

Upstream/Energy white-collar workers are generally older and mostly live in the suburbs. Near-suburban business districts like Westchase and the Energy Corridor are a better fit for energy, because they're relatively convenient to both the western suburbs and the inner loop (it doesn't hurt that both have a surplus of existing office space available). The only major inside-the-loop concentrations of energy companies are in downtown and Greenway Plaza. Both of these areas are served by the P+Rs (unlike Midtown) and are still losing companies to suburban campuses (Shell, Exxon, *almost* Occidental, etc).

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by spacecitytx

I've always wondered why (and I swear I'm not trying to start another versus thing here ), when it comes to the battle of the cities with the most F500 companies, only Houston and Dallas seem to be in a weird twilight zone-like place compared to the other cities. For example...any article on this subject shows you that Houston (as in the city ITSELF...not the metro area) has 24 F500 companies on it's own, while Dallas has only 12. But wait! Further down the line is Irving Tx with 5 F500 companies in it's own right. Houston's F500 companies are also spread out throughout the city and it's suburbs...so why is Dallas and Irving being separated, yet Houston is being counted as one big giant nest of F500 companies?

I'm not MAD at it by any means, seeing as how DFW homers love to puff up the metro's numbers in competitions like this when it suits them...and in this case Houston still wins this match by a considerable amount even with the Dallas and Irving companies combined...I'm just wondering why the two are counted as separate while Houston is counted as one.

They don’t separate them. But I think I see what you’re talking about. Irving often brands itself as the top notch place for executives. Someone above even called it “headquarters of headquarters”. So you often hear them talk about what companies they are host to alone and what not. But Irving and DFW companies are tallied together for sure.

But with all these things said, the Woodlands area is forming it’s own executive land. While Springwood Village is outside of the Woodlands boundaries, they have close ties and openly work together (which makes since considering that they’re adjacent). But SV brings a different kind of development to the WL area in that it is reserved for large land lots to host large campuses rather than mixed used tennants which is what the Woodlands Town Center and Hughes Landing do. They nonetheless still have many many companies between those two areas (Huntsman, Woodforest National Bank, etc).

But the Woodlands is also improving in that it’s establishing itself as a location for higher end retail. Chanel, Loui Vuitton, and Fertitta’s new Post Oak Car Collection etc. Knowing LP will respond to this, I’ll answer first. Yes I understand that these don’t directly attract executives. But executives (particularly those looking at the Woodlands) seek upscale and this is part of the environment.

Perhaps this is part of the reason Howard Hughes moved their headquarters to the Woodlands from Dallas as they see opportunity to build and market here.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

The Ion / Innovation District is hoping to attract tech and medical startups to Midtown, but I'm sure the area would welcome a major HQ if it would land one.

I'd say that area is a better fit for medical (given proximity to the med center) and/or industries who mostly lean on a younger workforce that appreciates inside-the-loop apartment / townhouse living.

Upstream/Energy white-collar workers are generally older and mostly live in the suburbs. Near-suburban business districts like Westchase and the Energy Corridor are a better fit for energy, because they're relatively convenient to both the western suburbs and the inner loop (it doesn't hurt that both have a surplus of existing office space available). The only major inside-the-loop concentrations of energy companies are in downtown and Greenway Plaza. Both of these areas are served by the P+Rs (unlike Midtown) and are still losing companies to suburban campuses (Shell, Exxon, *almost* Occidental, etc).

But in this case, they’d just move to TMC. There’s plenty of new development going up so there’s not a shortage of lab or office space there yet. They’re already bringing in a lot of medical AI (see ABB for example).

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

But in this case, they’d just move to TMC. There’s plenty of new development going up so there’s not a shortage of lab or office space there yet. They’re already bringing in a lot of medical AI (see ABB for example).

I agree, most medical or bioscience will seek more of a proximate TMC presence than Midtown, and the big new TMC developments would find a way to accommodate a big user.

I think you're more likely to see a tech firm with young workers consider Midtown, like Uber did with its Deep Ellum play in Dallas (now kind of undone by the pandemic). Still kind of a long shot though.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

They don’t separate them. But I think I see what you’re talking about. Irving often brands itself as the top notch place for executives. Someone above even called it “headquarters of headquarters”. So you often hear them talk about what companies they are host to alone and what not. But Irving and DFW companies are tallied together for sure.

But with all these things said, the Woodlands area is forming it’s own executive land. While Springwood Village is outside of the Woodlands boundaries, they have close ties and openly work together (which makes since considering that they’re adjacent). But SV brings a different kind of development to the WL area in that it is reserved for large land lots to host large campuses rather than mixed used tennants which is what the Woodlands Town Center and Hughes Landing do. They nonetheless still have many many companies between those two areas (Huntsman, Woodforest National Bank, etc).

But the Woodlands is also improving in that it’s establishing itself as a location for higher end retail. Chanel, Loui Vuitton, and Fertitta’s new Post Oak Car Collection etc. Knowing LP will respond to this, I’ll answer first. Yes I understand that these don’t directly attract executives. But executives (particularly those looking at the Woodlands) seek upscale and this is part of the environment.

Perhaps this is part of the reason Howard Hughes moved their headquarters to the Woodlands from Dallas as they see opportunity to build and market here.

ExxonMobil is sort of the exception in CityPlace. HPE and ABS are going into the town center area in a fairly tight mixed-use urban setting, similar to Town Center Woodlands. SWE is kind of in-between, but it moved there before the rest of CityPlace was built.

I actually think you phrased your assessment of upscale retail's role in TW fairly well. It's an indicator or symptom (and a lagging one) of an underlying upscale market there. Carlton Woods and East Shore really firmly established that market.

[atadytic19]

Originally Posted by Raider Scott

No energy company is going to relocate to that part of town. The rents are sky high and the traffic is a nightmare as is parking.

I specifically specified NON-ENERGY related.

Houston is good on energy companies period

[airdrawndagger]

Originally Posted by atadytic19

Houston is good on energy companies period

We're clearly good with O&G companies, but I think there's still much work to be done to attract alternative & renewable energy start-ups to Houston. While worldwide demand for energy will not decrease for the foreseeable future, it's very likely O&G demand will start to decrease soon, if we haven't already peaked. With many transferrable skills from O&G to other energy sectors, we already have the right people/skills in place, but it's critical that we pull these renewable firms from places like California and New England to ensure we maintain the jobs and workers. It's encouraging to see European companies like BP and Shell aggressively re-shaping their portfolios to accommodate and leverage the energy transition, but American counterparts have a lot of work to do - otherwise they will be late arrivers or risk extinction.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by airdrawndagger

We're clearly good with O&G companies, but I think there's still much work to be done to attract alternative & renewable energy start-ups to Houston. While worldwide demand for energy will not decrease for the foreseeable future, it's very likely O&G demand will start to decrease soon, if we haven't already peaked. With many transferrable skills from O&G to other energy sectors, we already have the right people/skills in place, but it's critical that we pull these renewable firms from places like California and New England to ensure we maintain the jobs and workers. It's encouraging to see European companies like BP and Shell aggressively re-shaping their portfolios to accommodate and leverage the energy transition, but American counterparts have a lot of work to do - otherwise they will be late arrivers or risk extinction.

We’ve actually been attracting renewable companies at a much faster rate than I thought possible. It makes sense since we are the global intellectual capital of the energy industry but seeing it in play is something else.

We are also attracting electric utility companies left and right which is key for us as the switch to electric rollls our.

[widespreadfan]

Exxon Mobil got removed from the Dow Jones a few years ago. It is very expensive for a company to move its HQ. This is not a good move for stockholders. I do not know why they are doing this and I am glad I sold my stock and reinvested in other energy companies.