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ENERGY TOWER at City Center
Taking the “Oil Capital of America ” to new heights
Wall Street Journal
Energy Boom Sparks Building Spree in West Texas
As Many Companies Prosper, Opinions Diverge on a Proposed Office
Tower That Would Dominate Midland's Skyline
By Russell Gold
MIDLAND, Texas—In 1927, when T.S. Hogan announced plans for a 12-story office building called the Petroleum Tower,
many here were incredulous. A skyscraper? On the plains of West Texas?
But city leaders embraced the building and the status it conferred on the city as the heart of the new Permian Basin oil field,
historians say. At least until 1929, when the price of a barrel of crude dropped to 15 cents and the just-opened building sat
empty.
Eighty-six years later, the Petroleum Tower still stands—and history may be starting to repeat itself. Midland officials are
welcoming plans to erect a 53-story skyscraper that would be more than twice the height of the tallest building in this city and
rank as the sixth tallest in all of Texas.
Midland, a city 300 miles west of Dallas with a population of 111,000 people, is growing quickly as companies bring in
employees to drill new oil wells in the Permian, where technological advances including fracking are freeing up huge
amounts of oil. Office space and housing are hard to come by.
The planned Energy Tower—a mix of office space, apartments, a five-star hotel, restaurants, stores and a public plazahopes to take advantage of these space shortages.
"This isn't built for show, it is built for need," said Bill Meyer, a principal in Energy Related Properties, which is working on the
building with Wexford Capital LP, a Connecticut-based private equity and hedge fund.
Mr. Meyer acknowledges the oil industry's current love affair with the Permian Basin could wane, as it has several times in the
past. "That's the risk you take and we're willing to take it," he said.
City leaders are hustling to back the project. Last month, Midland spent $2.2 million to buy two downtown blocks that are
now home to a disused county courthouse with a 1970s facade. Energy Related Properties has a one-year option on the
site. If built, Energy Tower would triple the total taxable value of downtown properties, he said. Sales taxes and property
taxes account for the vast majority of the city's revenues, followed by hotel taxes. Besides gaining a big new tax base on
those three fronts, proponents also hope to spur others to build and, in turn, improve the quality of life downtown.
"If you want a vibrant community, you need a vibrant downtown," said Mayor W. Wesley Perry, who abstained from the vote
to purchase the property because he owns an office building across the street.
Not everyone is enamored with the plans. "It just doesn't fit downtown or feel like it's responsible," said Charlotte Dixon, a
third-generation Midlander who works in the billing department of a doctor's office and started an online petition last month
opposing the skyscraper. She has collected 368 signatures. "Is this what we want to present to the world, that we're the
Dubai of Texas?"
Others worry that the Energy Tower, which would cost at least $350 million
and take two years to build, could open just as the oil industry's fever for the
Permian Basin cools.
"The most dangerous words ever spoken in Midland are 'it's different this
time'," says David Smith, executive director of the Abell-Hanger Foundation,
a local philanthropic organization.
But some oil executives think it is different, because the current boom has
been sparked by technological advances they say will keep the oil flowing.
Over the past two years, U.S. oil production has grown by 1.5 million barrels a
day, or 27%. Most of that increase—970,000 barrels a day—is coming from
Texas.
Chevron Corp. this year unveiled plans to build a $100 million office-space
campus on Midland's western edge for 800 employees. Despite rapidly
rising rents, Midland's downtown has a vacancy rate under 2%, compared
with 21% in Dallas, says Forshey Hoobler, a vice president at commercial
real-estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle . "There are no other cities like it," he said.
Downtown Midland looks frozen in time circa 1983, when the oil bust and
bank collapse brought construction to a standstill. One new office
building—a 10-story, green-windowed structure that opened last year—has
risen downtown in the last three decades.
After work hours, downtown Midland empties out—at 10 p.m. one recent night
not a single pedestrian walked on Wall Street, the business district's main
artery.
But Midlanders point to signs of growing cosmopolitanism, including a
planned 110-unit, loft- style apartment building downtown. It "will put a new
more sophisticated face on the city," said Ben Shepperd, president of the
Permian Basin Petroleum Association. "Frankly, most people think of us as
dusty West Texas with pump jacks everywhere."
Energy Related Properties says it won't break ground on the tower unless it
has firm leasing commitments. If demand is less than it expects, it could dial
back to a 40-story building—or increase the tower to 70 stories if there is
appetite.
The Petroleum Tower became known as "Hogan's Folly," says the mayor, Mr.
Perry. But it still put Midland on the map, he said, adding, "We're here
because of a tall building built years and years ago."
Bloomberg News
Wexford Plans 53-Story Tower in West Texas Oil Boomtown
By David Mildenburg
The proposed 53-story Energy Tower at City Center has begun pre-leasing its 560,177 square feet (52,042 square meter)
of office space, said William Meyer, a partner at Energy Related Properties, which is working with Wexford on the project.
The tower would be more than twice the height of the city’s tallest building.
Midland is located in the Spraberry-Wolfcamp range, which has 50 billion barrels of recoverable oil, second in the world to
a Saudi Arabian field, oil-exploration firm Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) said in an investor presentation yesterday.
No new high-rises have been built in the west Texas city of 120,000 since the mid-1980s, before collapsing oil prices sent the
city’s economic fortunes plunging, according to Mayor Wes Perry.
“It’s perfectly logical that this gets built,” Joseph Jacobs, co-founder of Greenwich, Connecticut- based Wexford, said in an
interview in Midland. “A new building like this in New York would receive little notice, but we think New York needs this type of
building a lot less than Midland.” Wexford should be able to find tenants for the building’s office space because of a supply
shortage and rising demand from large oil companies returning to the Permian Basin after reducing operations in the 1980s
and ’90s, Perry said. The west Texas basin has yielded more than 30 billion barrels over the past century, more than any
other U.S. region, according to Midland College’s Petroleum Professional Development Center.
Wexford Capital LP, a hedge fund with $5 billion in assets, is
planning to build a $350 million office-and-condominium tower
in Midland, Texas, as demand rises in a region home to the
world’s second-largest oil field.
“We’ve never had someone willing to pull out the checkbook and do something like this,” Perry said.
Tower Financing
While Wexford hasn’t completed financing for the tower and office rents aren’t yet set, “money isn’t an issue,” Jacobs said.
Plans for the tower include about 100 condominiums, a 198- room hotel, 53,500 square feet of retail space and a movie
theater. The tower’s architect is Michael Edmonds, principal of Edmonds International Ltd. in New York. Energy Related
Properties, Wexford’s partner on the project, is a Midland-based investment firm led by developers Meyer and Scooter
Brown.
Wexford partners including Jacobs and Charles Davidson hold more than 25 percent of the capital in Wexford, which
focuses on energy and real estate investments, Jacobs said. The fund owns a 44 percent stake in Diamondback Energy Inc.
(FANG), a Midland-based exploration company.
While Wexford has owned real estate since its 1994 founding, the Midland building would be the largest development it’s
built, Jacobs said.
Midland Counts on 53-Story Tower as Oil Again Buoys Texas
By David Mildenburg
Outsiders have been seeking fortune from Midland since the discovery of oil in the 1920s and includes the family that
spawned two American presidents. George H.W. Bush, in the 1950s, and his son George W. Bush, seen here with his wife
Laura, lived in Midland in the 1970s, as partners in oil companies before starting their political careers. Photographer: Saul
Loeb/AFP via Getty By
When clients in Midland, Texas, complained that they couldn’t find office space, hotel rooms or banquet halls, hedge fund
co-founder Joseph Jacobs saw a big opportunity.
It turned out to be 53 stories big, potentially the tallest office building between Los Angeles and Dallas, and almost twice the
height of anything in the onetime hometown of former presidents George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush.
Jacobs, the president of Wexford Capital LP, with $5 billion in assets, views the $350 million Energy Tower
office-hotel-condominium project as the centerpiece of the Permian Basin, the source of almost 60 percent of Texas’s oil last
year. Midland County, with a population of about 147,000, was the fastest-growing metropolitan area as of July, the U.S.
Census Bureau said last month.
“This is a very important part of America that isn’t well understood,” said Jacobs, 60, who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut,
where Wexford is based. “My friends have told me, ‘You can’t be serious,’ but when you look at the facts and the potential
here, it’s perfectly logical that this building gets built.”
Since 2010, Wexford has invested $45 million in four of Midland’s downtown office buildings, totaling about 800,000 square
feet, said William Meyer, a partner in Energy Related Properties, a Midland company working with Wexford. The hedge
fund, which specializes in energy and real estate investments, also owns 44 percent of Diamondback Energy Inc (FANG)
(FANG)., a Midland oil-exploration company that first sold shares to the public in October.
Skyscraper Plans
Skyscraper plans are nothing new for Midland, where some locals remain skeptical about the project because of its size and
the unfulfilled promises of previous development. The attitude is, “I’m confident they have the financial resources to do it, but
until I see the concrete being poured on any development, I don’t believe it,” said Courtney Sharp, the city manager.
Midland doesn’t show up on lists of top vacation destinations. It’s at least 300 miles (480 kilometers) from better-known
population centers such as Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin. The surrounding plains are so flat that the tower may
be visible 30 miles away, Meyer said. Temperatures range from freezing to the 90s Fahrenheit (30s Celsius), often
accompanied by strong winds, according to U.S. National Weather Service records.
Bush Roots
Outsiders, including the Bushes, have been seeking their fortune in Midland since the discovery of oil in the 1920s. Jeb Bush,
the former Florida governor who’s the son and brother of the two former presidents, was born in Midland.
Busts have invariably followed booms, the worst occurring in the mid-1980s, when an oil-price collapse sent Midland’s office
vacancy rate to almost 50 percent, said Jack Ladd, dean of the business and engineering school at the University of Texas’s
campus in nearby Odessa.
“It was depressing seeing so many families move to Dallas and Houston,” said Midland Mayor Wes Perry, noting that Exxon Mobil
Corp (XOM) (XOM)., Chevron Corp (CVX) (CVX)., and other large companies closed their local offices, putting residents out
of work. “But some stayed, started their own companies and ended up with the assets that have helped make us one of the
entrepreneurial capitals of the world.”
Chevron Expands
Now the major oil companies are coming back to Midland, led by Chevron, which is building a $100 million office campus and
more than doubling its local employment to 1,500, said County Judge Mike Bradford. This boom shows promise because demand
is growing as new technologies open up drilling opportunities, said Perry, who runs an oil and gas investment company.
“Five years ago I didn’t believe it, but now we’re talking about decades of drilling ahead,” he said.
Energy Tower needs to lease 30 percent of its 560,000 square feet (about 52,000 square meters) of office space before the city
will hand the project two downtown blocks including a former courthouse. That shouldn’t be a high hurdle because the new
building would add less than 10 percent of space in a market with a vacancy rate of less than 2 percent, said Meyer, a former
private-equity analyst at Greenhill & Co (GHL). in New York who last year joined his father’s real-estate company.
Midland Reporter-Telegram
mywesttexan.com
How oil prompted the development of Energy Tower
By Joseph Basco
The long-term strength of the oil industry in the Permian Basin has prompted an investment firm, headquartered in
Greenwich, Conn., to fund what could be one of the tallest buildings in the state.
And it will be oil that will continue to raise Midland’s profile to others across the nation, officials with the Energy Tower at City
Center said this week. “(The Permian Basin) is the largest oil-producing region in the U.S.,” said Joseph Jacobs, president
and co-founder of Wexford Capital, the financial backing to Energy Tower at City Center. “It produces about double what
the Eagle Ford (shale) produces; it produces more than we get out of the Gulf of Mexico. It produces about 20 percent of the
energy in the U.S.”
In 2012, the Permian Basin produced about 312 million barrels of crude oil, in contrast to the roughly 132 million barrels of
crude oil the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas produced last year, according to the Texas Railroad Commission. In the entire
country, 2.3 billion barrels of crude oil were produced in 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Oil, developers say, should be part of Midland’s brand, much like “Tall City” or “Midland, Texas, Where the Sky’s the Limit.”
Energy Related Properties, the developer of Energy Tower at City Center, has branded Midland as the “Oil Capital of
America” on marketing materials and during press conferences for the 53- story mixed-use facility.
William Meyer, a partner of ERP, said Midland is a better bet today for real estate than major cities such as New York City,
Los Angeles and Miami because of the oil production base. Because of the amount of oil produced in the Permian Basin
and the quality of life in other oil- producing areas such as Kuwait, Meyer said he thinks Energy Tower is not that
controversial and that there should be five towers like Energy Tower in Midland.
“We believe in oil,” Meyer said. “We believe in Midland — long term.”
But a look into Midland’s past, particularly the early 1980s, reveals a series of downtown skyscrapers that were never built
post-oil industry crash. One such building was the Renaissance West, a 50-story tower that was being developed by
Midland Southwest Corp. Midlander Wallace Craig said via email that he was hired to market the building.
“It was fully designed and ready to go, with a major hotel on the northwest corner and an atrium covering the center,” Craig
said. “Then the bloom started to come off the boom, and we revised the size of the building downward several times.”
According to a rendering of the 30-story version of Renaissance West, the building was planned to be located at the
northwest corner of Texas Avenue and Loraine Street, just east of the Petroleum Building.
In the next three years, the economy became so bad that the plans were scrapped, Craig said.
Another example of a building project stopped because of the boom-bust economy was cattle entrepreneur David Porras’
plans for Energy Square, a 37-story office tower with a 12-story
parking garage and adjoining hotel, as previously reported on Nov. 14, 1982, just before the oil bust. Energy Square, which
was planned to occupy three blocks, from the southeast corner of Big Spring Street and Missouri Avenue to Front Street,
was a $97 million project.
As previously reported, Mayor Wes Perry said Energy Tower is valued between $300 million and $350 million, which is more
than the $150 million to $200 million total combined current value of all other downtown buildings, according to Perry.
Jacobs, whose firm also invests in oil, said the reason why the oil market collapsed in the 1980s is because of oversupply that
lowered oil prices. “If you contrast that to what’s happened in the last seven years, oil has quadrupled,” Jacobs said. “ Oil
was maybe 86 million barrels a day when it was $30 per barrel, and today it is $110 at 90 million barrels a day. So in seven
years, you’ve had a 4 million barrels-a-day increase.”
He said the reason why oil prices nearly quadrupled while supply relatively grew little is because of worldwide production.
“If you take all the oil fields together (in the world), you have a natural run-off in these fields,” Jacobs said. “They don’t
produce forever; they go into decline.”
Every year, worldwide production of oil decreases by 5 million to 6 million barrels per day, he said. So to offset that
decrease, another site, possibly in a different part of the world, begins drilling.
“So all the drilling that’s occurring is more or less sort of replacing what’s being lost,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs said he is unsure that the oil industry has already peaked but thinks there won’t be the same type of oil price volatility
like in the 1980s because of the difficulty to add supply.
When completed, Energy Tower will feature
Class A office space, apartments for sale, a
five-star hotel, restaurants, a VIP movie theater,
high end boutiques, underground parking, a
public park, ballrooms, convention space and a
rooftop lounge, as envisioned by the
developers.
Meyer said people will demand these types of
amenities in Midland because there are few.
“If it doesn’t work, the building will still be there
and it will be beautiful,” Meyer said. “It will be
our problem. We’re willing to accept that risk.”
Editorial: Time for Energy Tower officials to get to work
Michael Edmonds, principal of Edmonds International, has said the proposed Energy Tower at City Center will represent the
architectural project of the future and could create a social network unlike any other for downtown.
“What I’m excited the most for is that Energy Tower could
start a ripple effect of activity downtown,” Edmonds
said. That is exactly the desire of everyone who has
backed this project from the beginning. We sincerely
hope his vision matches the realities we face in our
downtown revitalization efforts. A lot of groups in this
community, including this newspaper, have gone
against the notion of saving the old courthouse in
order to bring new life into the downtown area.
We see the project’s potential risk, with a taxpayer
cost of around $2 million, for the ideal downtown
center location. But it’s one that could have
boundless benefits for the city.
(On Thursday), developers officially unveiled the
Energy Tower project. We wish them the best of
luck, because now is time for the developers to
bring light to the promises by providing a working
mixed-use facility that bears living spaces,
shopping and entertainment venues. Now is the
time to start the process of locking up potential
tenants.
And now is the time to start the process of
making this community more confident in the
58- story (53 above ground) structure and
what it could bring to Midland.
A lot has to be accomplished before the
reality of the final product meets the visions
we have for it — that Energy Tower can
become an iconic structure to symbolize
our city and to bring people back to the
downtown area. Still, Thursday not only
represented the first step in a process,
but clock is ticking and a city’s highest
expectations need to be met.
Architect, developers reveal site design for Energy Tower
219,582 square-foot site to feature tower, convention area, park
By Joseph Basco
Energy Related Properties, Wexford Capital and Edmonds International revealed Thursday how the site of the proposed
Energy Tower, composed of multiple parts, will transform after construction is complete.
Michael Edmonds, architect and founder of Edmonds International, presented the plans during a press conference at
Centennial Plaza. He talked about how the space, from the western parking lot of the old Midland County Courthouse to the
eastern end of Midland Center, will become a city center.
Regarding the tower itself, the rooftop will feature a lounge area. Underneath the lounge will be 28 floors, or 560,177 square
feet of office space. Underneath the office space will be 12 floors of residential space, 12 floors of hotel space, one floor of
retail and five underground parking levels.
Outside the tower, 104,410 square feet will be used for public park space. And 59,500 square feet will be used for
convention and ballroom space.
“They all feed off each other to become greater than the sum of their parts,” Edmonds said regarding all the components of
Energy Tower. “That’s the idea of mixed use.”
Edmonds then went further into the philosophy of mixed-use projects. He said projects like Energy Tower make life better not
just for the end user but also the community. “You have this idea of work, play and live in one location,” Edmonds said.
ERP partners Bill Meyer, William Meyer and Wendell “Scooter” Brown, as well as Joseph Jacobs, president of
Connecticut-based investment firm Wexford Capital, also spoke during the press conference.
Bill Meyer, the first to speak, told a story to the audience about how when people across the country in places like New York
City or even Dallas ask him where is office is located, he says it is in Midland. He said those people had no idea where
Midland even was.
He then said it was important for Midland, a place he called the “Oil Capital of America,” to have identity. He added that
structures define communities.
“Oil is power,” Bill Meyer said. “Oil is pride. Oil is truly our destiny here.”
When asked after the press conference about what attracted Wexford Capital to the Energy Tower project, Jacobs told the
Reporter-Telegram that although he is an outsider to Midland, Wexford Capital has an oil company and owns property
here, giving it some insight to the community. He said he has talked to people in Midland that said there is a shortage of office
space, housing and employees.
“We thought, if we’re going to do a project, as Michael Edmonds pointed out, you could have done separate buildings,”
Jacobs said. “I don’t think it would have dramatically impacted the cost, but it would have had less of an impact. So we
figured we put them all together.”
Energy Tower developer says 20-40 percent of office space locked down
By Joseph Basco
With the search for tenants underway, developers of the 53-story Energy Tower at City Center said they are “good” on
having 20 to 40 percent of the building’s office space leased out to companies, but negotiations are still ongoing with those
groups.
The percentage range puts developer Energy Related Properties near the 30 percent requirement that the city of Midland
mandates for the deed to be handed over from the city to the developer.
The developer will have a press conference at 5 p.m. today at Centennial Park to formally announce Energy Tower at City
Center, a mixed-use high-rise with more than 990,000 square feet of office, residential, hospitality, retail and entertainment
space.
The tower will be the fifth building ERP owns and operates in Midland. The four buildings they currently operate -- WNB
Tower, Fasken Center, Independence Plaza and Graham Building -- occupy about 800,000 square feet of Class A office
space, said William Meyer, ERP partner. The new tower will have 560,177 square feet of Class A office space, according to
the architect, Edmonds International.
“Our tenants are demnding more things,” Meyer said. “They are demanding fitness centers, executive housing, catering,
child care and Class A space that competes with anything that’s as good as in Houston so that they could recruit
employees. They’re demanding ways that will help them bring really good people to Midland.”
Meyer said companies are frustrated with the lack of downtown amenities, so they construct buildings themselves outside
of the downtown area. Meyer thinks that is not a healthy way to develop because communities have to have a strong core,
he said.
Michael Edmonds, the architect who designed Energy Tower and other mixed-use buildings in Vancouver, Mexico and Asia,
said every city has its own set of problems or needs that need to be resolved.
“But in this case, the needs and the direction is so clear,” Edmonds said, “ and the effect the project will have on the
community is so large in scale.”
ERP first noticed Edmonds’ work when Bill Meyer, father of William Meyer, visited the VIP movie theater at The Park Plaza in
Mexico City, which is a mixed-use structure similar to Energy Tower, Edmonds said. After experiencing the VIP theater, a
place that serves food and drinks to you while you watch the movie, Meyer’s father said this concept needs to come to
Midland, Edmonds said.
Both father and son then came to Edmond’s office, also located at The Park Plaza, and asked him to be the architect for
Energy Tower, Edmonds said. He added that in the 14 years of his firm’s operation, no one “knocked on the door” to his office,
asking to be the architect for a building, until the Meyers came to him.
One of the goals that Meyer hopes to accomplish with Energy Tower is to make it Midland’s iconic building, similar to how the
Empire State Building is associated with New York City or how the Golden Gate Bridge is associated with San Francisco.
Otherwise, Midland would remain unknown to the world.
“We’re trying everything to make people feel proud about this,” Meyer said.
Architect: 'Energy Tower starts ripple effect of downtown activity'
By Joseph Basco
Whereas five years ago developers were spending too much money on inefficient buildings, today they are more savvy
regarding creating iconic but efficient buildings, according to the architect of Energy Tower at City Center.
Michael Edmonds, principal of Edmonds International, said vertical mixed-use buildings, such as Energy Tower, are the
architectural projects of the future.
"Mixed-use buildings are much more sustainable," said Edmonds, who hopes the tower creates a social network downtown.
"When you go vertical, you make less of a footprint."
The philosophy of Edmonds International is that form follows not only function but also efficiency, according to its website.
Edmonds said he founded his firm 14 years ago and since then has designed more than 60 million square feet in buildings
across the world, in places such as Mexico and Asia. In Asia, mixed-use buildings have been built because of tight budgets,
he said.
But now his firm is shifting focus onto North American cities such as Vancouver and Midland to design mixed-use buildings
for the Western world. Edmonds, a 20-year veteran of architecture, said there are two diverging philosophies when
designing mixed-use buildings: horizontal or vertical design. With horizontal design, specific functions such as housing,
commercial use and entertainment would have its own dedicated space on the ground, taking up a lot of land. With vertical
design, each of these functions can be stacked on top of each other.
One of Edmonds International's projects, The Park Plaza in Mexico City, is a vertical mixed-use development that also
houses the firm's Mexico headquarters. He said this building promotes sustainable living because everything he needed,
from dining to entertainment, was contained within.
Energy Tower, being a vertically designed mixed-use building, frees up 80 percent of the total site area. This free area could
be used for a plaza, garden, landscapes and a grass roof amphitheater, giving life to downtown, Edmonds said.
"What I'm excited the most for is that Energy Tower could start a ripple effect of activity downtown," Edmonds said.
According to the Edmonds International website, the firm takes note of a proposed building's site in terms of its unique
requirements and opportunities so that the building responds to its surroundings responsibly and symbiotically.
Regarding Midland, Edmonds said he noticed how there is no activity on the streets downtown after 5 p.m., but people here
are friendly and easy to talk to. That friendliness translates to a need for a "real social network" downtown, a place where
people have places they can go to and be seen, he said.
Edmonds hopes Energy Tower will plant the seed for that real social network, he said.
Developer on new tower: Energy Tower at City Center to show off a
downtown on the rise
By William A. Meyer II Energy Related Properties partner
From its beginning as Midway Station, a train depot half way between Fort Worth and El Paso, to its status today as the
global heart of the oil field, Midland has been known as the land of high skies. I am so very proud to be part of the effort under
way to raise higher the sky above Midland with the development of a landmark structure in the heart of the city.
Energy Tower at City Center will add an architecturally significant landmark to the endless horizon for which West Texas is
known, reminding the world once again that Midland is indeed the oil capital of America.
The 58-story Energy Tower at City Center (53 floors above ground) downtown will provide nearly 1 million square feet of
office, residential, hospitality, retail and entertainment space on one site, to help meet the growing demands of our city. It’s
an efficient and thoughtful use of the limited land available downtown and harnesses the
Tower’s might via its height, toward the sky.
As developers, we humbly follow in the paths
forged by city fathers in the late 1920s such as
Clarence Scharbauer, who built a 250-room
hotel downtown, and Thomas Hogan, who
erected the ornate and timelessly elegant
Petroleum Building not far away. Their visions
were as much about what the city would become
as they were of what the city already was: the
center of America’s prolific oil industry. Nearly a
century later, I understand well the stuff of their
dreams.
Midland’s downtown is vibrant once again. We
know Energy Tower at City Center will make it even
brighter. Rather than build separate commercial,
hotel and rental units sprawled on the outskirts of
town, we chose a higher quality, more cost-efficient
solution: a single smart tower that will stand as an
economic magnet, attracting commerce and
business from across town, across Texas and
throughout the nation. In Midland, continually ranked
today among the nation’s leading economies and job
creators, we believe the tower will be a beacon calling the region and state’s top employers — and Midland’s sons and
daughters — back downtown to the heart of the city.
We also know that growth can come with pain, and we understand that good people disagree on the merits of replacing the
current county courthouse with the tower. We respect their affection for and their memories of the old courthouse. But I
would direct you once again to the early 20th century in Midland County, when beloved structures went up but ultimately
came down later in the century to foster new and productive avenues for prosperity and growth in Midland.
Energy Tower at City Center will stand as the sixth-tallest building in Texas when it opens in two years. Gardens and green
space, reflecting pools and a shaded public plaza will invite Midlanders and their visitors alike to experience an oasis in the
social center of downtown. You may want to take advantage of the bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly exercise areas, enjoy
the cultural offerings that the
sculptures and artwork will offer
or attend a concert, festival or
farmer’s market also planned for
the
adjacent
400-seat
amphitheatre and plaza area.
One-half of the signature
building, LEED (Leadership in
Energy
and
Environmental
Design), certified and designed
by the renowned architect
Michael Edmonds of Edmonds
International, will be home to
Class A office space. The
remaining half will be dedicated to a 200-room five- star hotel, residential units offering hotel amenities, best-in-class
restaurants, cafes and shops. In addition, Energy Tower at City Center will offer a seven-screen VIP movie theater, sky
restaurant, private club and ballroom and convention space for up to 5,000 people per event for any theme or occasion.
And in what promises to be one of the most exciting features, five underground floors come with the new building, easing
pedestrian and traffic flow downtown.
Leasing at Energy Tower at City Center has begun for the planned 2015 opening. Even at its towering height of 869 feet, this
new structure will grow Midland’s commercial space by only about 8 percent, and its retail and residential space by just a
few percentage points.
We hope you will agree that the new tower — and more important, the Midlanders who work, live and visit there — will
energize the pulse of our downtown and enhance the quality of life for all those, like me, who call this glorious city and her
legendary skies their own.
William A. Meyer is a partner in Energy Related Properties, developers of Energy Tower at City Center along with Wexford
Capital LP. Energy Related Properties, founded and headquartered in downtown Midland, is a private equity fund
dedicated to investing in, developing and operating real estate assets. The fund invests in properties where energy plays a
significant role in the economic viability of each community. Wexford Capital LP, an SEC-registered multi-billion dollar
global investment advisor formed in 1994, currently owns a diversified portfolio of real estate, including the Midland office
properties of Fasken Center and Western National Bank Building, both owned in partnership with ERP.
Oil&Gas Journal
Midland plans skyscraper
By Paula Dittrick
Developers early this month unveiled plans to build what they call Energy Tower City Center in Midland. Initial plans call for
offices, condominiums, a hotel, retail space, and a movie theater.
The announcement reminded this reporter of her stint during the 1980s as a wire service reporter working out of a West
Texas bureau that included coverage of Midland and Odessa. At that time, an oil price bust and a failed downtown bank
sent Midland into an economic tail spin.
The tail spin included unfulfilled real estate promises. No high-rise buildings have been constructed in Midland for about 3
decades although a 10-story structure opened last year. Some downtown skyscrapers discussed during the 1980s never
materialized.
Organizers behind the proposed 53-story energy tower assure the media and other interested parties that oil
supply-demand scenarios have changed since then.
"It's perfectly logical that this gets built," said Joseph Jacobs, cofounder of Wexford Capital LP, a private equity and hedge
fund based in Greenwich, Conn., that is proposing the $350 million tower, expected to take 2 years to build.
The Midland-based Energy Related Properties (ERP) is working with Wexford on the project, and executives said
pre-leasing has begun for the envisioned tower, which would be about twice the height of Midland's tallest building.
Wexford's Jacobs told reporters that he doubts industry will see the same type of oil price volatility as experienced during
the 1980s.
Downtown revitalization efforts
William Meyer, ERP partner, hopes the building can help revitalize downtown Midland. "We're trying everything to make
people feel proud about this," he said, adding plans call for "Class A space that competes with anything that's as good as
in Houston."
West Houston is well known for its energy corridor along Interstate 10 where office buildings hosting oil and gas companies
dominate the real estate landscape.
ERP's Meyer believes the proposed tower will help oil and gas companies that already are trying to recruit employees to
accept jobs in Midland and to move their families there.
"We believe in oil. We believe in Midland long term," Meyer said. "This isn't built for show, it is built for need."
Currently, the old Midland County courthouse sits on land where the tower is to be built. Developers bought the land in
March.
Michael Edmonds, principal of Edmonds International, has been hired to design the office-hotel-condominium project.
Previously, he designed mixed-use buildings in Canada, Mexico, and Asia. Edmonds hopes the project will create a social
network for downtown Midland.
Edmonds hopes that the proposed high rise "could start a ripple effect of activity downtown."
Petroleum Building's role
Midland already has a Petroleum
Building, a 12-story office building that
opened in 1929. Developer T.S. Hogan
outlined plans for the Petroleum Tower in
1927. At that time, 12 stories was a
skyscraper for Midland. Although it sat
empty for awhile, the Petroleum Building
still stands today.
This reporter can't help but question
assertions that fate will be kinder this time
for an energy skyscraper in Midland
than in previous decades. Optimistic oil
executives argue it's different for
industry now because of technological
advancements,
particularly
for
unconventional oil and gas.
Midland Mayor W. Wesley Perry notes
his city is seeing a rising demand for
office space from oil companies
returning to the Permian basin. Perry
acknowledges the existing Petroleum
Building was nicknamed "Hogan's folly"
for awhile.
Yet, he also believes the building helped
put Midland on the map. "We're here
because of a tall building built years and
years ago," Perry said.
PBOil&Gas
Making a Statement: Midland’s Engergy Tower
by Christi Stark
It already has its own Wikipedia page, for goodness sakes.
If all plans are put in motion, the latest Big Thing to hit the Permian Basin will be the 58-story Energy Tower now slated for
downtown Midland.
Midland-based developer Energy Related Properties will build its high rise in the heart of downtown Midland, offering more
than 990,000 square feet of office, residential living, hospitality, retail and entertainment space.
A vertically integrated, mixed-use structure composed of glass, steel, vertical gardens, reflecting pools and a public plaza,
Energy Tower at City Center will stand as the state’s sixth-tallest building and a monument to Midland as the “Oil Capital of
America” when it opens in 2015, per its developers.
Joining Energy Related Properties as developer is Wexford Capital LP. Energy Related Properties, a Midland-based real
estate investment and management firm that develops, owns, and operates commercial properties in Midland and other
communities in which the energy industry is key to economic vitality. Wexford Capital LP, an SEC registered multi-billion
global investment advisor formed in 1994, currently owns a diversified portfolio of real estate including the Midland office
properties of Fasken Center and Western National Bank Building, both owned in partnership with ERP.
A Tale of Two Cities
Planned to top out at 870 feet, Midland’s Energy Tower will surpass Oklahoma City’s Devon Tower by 20 feet. The two
projects pose some fascinating comparisons. Oklahoma City’s skyscraper climbed more than 300 feet beyond anything
else in Oklahoma City, immediately becoming the town’s signature building and its most prestigious address. Devon Energy,
a company with strong interests in the Permian Basin, started its tower in 2009 and finished it only early this year. It has
transformed the city’s downtown.
Midland’s tower will even more emphatically impact the skyline of the Tall City. Where Oklahoma City’s tower is half-again
as tall as its surrounding high rises, Midland’s Energy Tower will be twice as tall as anything around it. Energy Tower is to have
58 stories. Devon Tower has 52.
Oklahoma City and Midland/Odessa bear some striking similarities where their oil and gas contingents are concerned, as
well. Oklahoma City is home to Chesapeake, Continental (biggest player in the Bakken), and Sandridge, as well as Devon.
Midland/Odessa has more oil companies and a larger overall position in oil and gas, but few cities other than Houston
could bear such striking parallels, as does Oklahoma City, to the twin capitals of the Permian Basin.
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