Thread regarding Halliburton Co. layoffs

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This is not the only facility in Houston that will be shut down and sold.

There are several more consolidations and facility closures on the near horizon.

Several back room meetings on this very subject

Just putting the plans together and where these consolidations will take place.

"5 Uncle Dave is calling for employees to make 'voluntary' contributions so that this "strategic asset" can be saved."

Didn't know they had any remaining US employees

The latest email from Uncle Dave lists several unusual terms to sweeten the deal.

1 Uncle Dave is authorized to pay the purchaser up to 5 times the asking price to take the property off Halliburton's asset portfolio.

2 Interested employees can contact Uncle Dave thru HR, and arrange a paycheck deduction schedule to acquire ownership.

3 Uncle Dave has agreed to throw in several of the Limited Edition Uncle Dave bobblehead dolls to the lucky purchaser.

4 Uncle Dave has agreed to pay all the closing costs.

5 Uncle Dave is calling for employees to make 'voluntary' contributions so that this "strategic asset" can be saved.

It appears that BHI REFUSED Uncle Dave's request to consider the property as part of the $3.5 BILLION payout, with the CEO of BHI saying, "Does he really think we want that sh--hole, when we can now build our own"?

However, there is no word on whether the more than life size statue of Uncle Dave, resplendent in his Red Coveralls, and Gold hardhat, will make the move to the new facilty.

Halliburton, the Houston-based oil field services company that recently had to pay $3.5 billion related to a failed merger with competitor Baker Hughes, has put a sprawling west Houston office property up for sale amid a deep retrenchment in the global energy industry.

Halliburton is selling the 48-acre property as part of "ongoing cost management efforts," spokeswoman Emily Mir said Wednesday by email. Employees have been transferred to the company's North Belt campus off the Sam Houston Parkway, she added.

Similarly, other energy companies have been unloading portions of their real estate holdings as they've cut thousands of workers and suffered substantial financial losses amid the worst oil downturn in years.

"I'd like to say we've reached a bottom, but I don't feel like we have," said Tim Relyea, executive vice chairman of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas, a commercial real estate firm.

"This town is a major cyclical city driven primarily around one industry, and that industry is very cyclical," he said.

Glut of office space grows

Over the summer, Chevron Corp. said it had put on the market a 10-story office building in Bellaire and more than 100 acres in Katy that the company had bought just two years earlier. Chevron, which in April said it was shedding 655 local jobs in exploration and production, is asking close to $35 million for the acreage.

The property dispositions add to the glut of office space energy companies are trying to sublease because they no longer need as much room.

Over the summer, oil giant BP said it was subleasing an entire office 20-story office building in the Energy Corridor along Interstate 10. Nearby, ConocoPhillips put its new 22-story building on the sublease market as well. The company had yet to occupy the tower.

The stress has spread beyond the energy-centric west side.

In Greenspoint, a six-building complex where until recently Exxon Mobil had been the primarily tenant, was taken over by Northwestern Mutual, which held the loan on the property. The previous owner, the Hines real estate firm and the General Motors Pension Fund, handed over the keys earlier this year.

Downtown, several energy companies with offices in gleaming towers are now in bankruptcy, potentially leaving the landlords with a large liability.

"No one knows how much more space will come back on the market, but I bet it's more than we think," Relyea said.

Halliburton's west Houston complex, known as the Oak Park campus, is near the intersection of Bellaire Boulevard and the West Beltway.

The property's main structure is a hulking concrete office building in the shape of a bow tie and surrounded by surface parking lots. There is also a fitness center, day care center, central plant and a five-story parking garage. The campus includes 8 acres of undeveloped land.

While there is no official asking price for the property, 10200 Bellaire Blvd., it is listed on Harris County's tax rolls for $45 million.

The Westchase District, which includes the Halliburton campus, has been one of the hardest-hit parts of town. The area has 1.5 million square feet of sublease space available, according to data released Wednesday by commercial real estate firm Transwestern.

Across the Houston area, the amount of sublease space has more than doubled since early last year with energy companies making up the bulk of the companies downsizing.

Decline likely to continue

Houston's commercial property estate market likely has not seen the end of the real estate cuts, said Kevin McConn, senior vice president of JLL Capital Markets, which is listing the Halliburton property.

"I do think we will see more of that over time," he said.

The 568,458-square-foot Halliburton building was developed in 1979, but multiple upgrades have been made since 2013, according to JLL.

The company is marketing the property to a diverse group of potential buyers.

"We are going out to our standard database of investors and owner/operators and developers, but we're also targeting potential users and tenants that might be looking to consolidate," McConn said. "We think it's a very unique opportunity to own a corporate campus at a lesser price point in a very cost-conscious environment."

The property is expected to sell for less than what it would cost to replace it today, McConn said.

The buyer, he added, is likely to purchase the property with cash, due to constraints in commercial real estate lending for property in Houston.

"There are many investors that still believe in Houston from a long-term standpoint and believe that west Houston will bounce back and be a very popular spot to invest in over time," he said.

Relyea points to recent merger-and-acquisition activity as a positive sign for Houston.

"Those people are doing it because they do think we're near the bottom," he said.

"It's the next stop toward coming out of a lull."