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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. TV Coverage Outlet Name: Bloomberg Television KMID ABC KUPB Univision KPEJ Fox KWES/KWAB NBC KOSA CBS Advertising