ONEOK spinning off distribution companies; moving to First Place Tower

[swake]

Where do the current articles say the three companies are merging?    

I think you are correct that at least some of the back office functions are centralized for the three companies.  Nonetheless, I think we are talking about a relatively small HQ.  To be clear, I am not suggesting 10 or 50 people.   This got started in the context of someone asking if One Gas was buying the entire building.  Clearly the HQ will be much smaller than anything that would require all of or close to all of First Place Tower.  Further, I suspect their HQ will be smaller than the 400 people that Cimarex formerly had in First Place Tower.

Re: your employment search.  By your own admission, it was meaningless, since you were unable to separate One Gas from Oneok.  

Headline of the article from the World:

ONEOK's three utilities, including ONG, to become one company

I know that headlines aren't written by reporters and can be inaccurate, but then there's the very first line of the article:

ONEOK Inc. announced Thursday it plans to spin off its three utilities, including Oklahoma Natural Gas, into a single and separate, publicly traded company called ONE Gas by next year's first quarter.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/ONEOKs_three_utilities_including_ONG_to_become_one/20130726_49_e1_cutlin22565?subj=5

My search would be meaningless from the perspective of Tulsa. Not for the OKC, OP or Austin. Any office of any size, even if with just 100 people each should have some turnover and hiring. That doesn't seem to be the case.

[Oil Capital]

Headline of the article from the World:I know that headlines aren't written by reporters and can be inaccurate, but then there's the very first line of the article:http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/ONEOKs_three_utilities_including_ONG_to_become_one/20130726_49_e1_cutlin22565?subj=5

My search would be meaningless from the perspective of Tulsa. Not for the OKC, OP or Austin. Any office of any size, even if with just 100 people each should have some turnover and hiring. That doesn't seem to be the case.

I don't read the story as necessarily meaning the three operating companies are merging, only that they are being transferred out to be owned by a new holding company.   That structure makes a more sense for a regulated utility than merging the companies.  I doubt they are being merged.

So, are you saying you think ONG's headquarters does not even have 100 employees? and by extension that the Kansas Gas Service HQ has fewer than 100 employees?

[swake]

I'm saying that your article said when the office moved it was 100 people.

[Oil Capital]

I'm saying that your article said when the office moved it was 100 people.

The fact that there are currently no job listings for Oklahoma City does not tell us much at all about the number of employees in the OKC headquarters of ONG.  It tells us even less about the likely number of jobs that will be in the One Gas headquarters upon its formation.  

[cannon_fodder]

I have no idea if ONE GAS will be a real company with hundreds of employees or another shell under ONEOK Partners.  But...

The OneOK building is very full.  They have been not renewing leases of tenants for a decade now... occupying the floors themselves as I understand it.  Their security procedures and behavior of their guards reflects this (I used to work in the building and was showing the lobby to a law student who didn't know what ONEOK was as we walked by.  As i was talking about what a good compang amd nice buildinv it was, The guard very rudely demanded we retrace our steps and go out the exit we came in via escort while threatening to call the police.  We are wearing suit and tie at 12:30 and didn't run a frikken police line or anythinh).

[Oil Capital]

I have no idea if ONE GAS will be a real company with hundreds of employees or another shell under ONEOK Partners.  But...

ONE GAS will be (and is now) a "real" company that is a totally separate entity from ONEOK Partners.  

When the spinoff was announced last year, they said the ONE GAS headquarters would be in First Place Tower.  Does anyone know if ONE GAS has moved anyone over there yet?  Interesting to note the new One Gas website has the 100 W. 5th St.(ONEOK Plaza) address.

[swake]

ONE GAS will be (and is now) a "real" company that is a totally separate entity from ONEOK Partners.  

When the spinoff was announced last year, they said the ONE GAS headquarters would be in First Place Tower.  Does anyone know if ONE GAS has moved anyone over there yet?  Interesting to note the new One Gas website has the 100 W. 5th St.(ONEOK Plaza) address.

These things take time. A spin off is always messy. Moving offices is always messy too. The First Place Tower, at least when I worked there, was a mess all on it's own.

[davideinstein]

I don't think they've made the move yet. And yes, that building is a total mess. What happened to the Zip Inn?

[Nik]

The ONE Gas employees have not moved yet. I believe the move will occur sometime this summer.

[cannon_fodder]

The Tulsa World published permits today for floors 17 - 33 of First Place Tower, at a cost of $300-350,000 per floor.  That indicates a pretty significant buildout:  carpet, ceilings, move some walls, paint everything, new trim, etc.  Building out 16 floors will take some time.

In other news - wow!  I didn't know they were occupying 16 floors.  ONEOK must be expecting some serious growth and/or consolidating tons of employees.  The ONEOK building is full and they are not advertising new lease space.  I believe First Place represents the largest (and maybe even most) of the Class A/B unoccupied office space downtown.  The BOK/Williams buildings are nearly full, but for a floor or two of the cities dirty ice cube.  One place (Cimerex) is fully lease (but for really expensive retail space). 

The B spaces are doing OK - Kennedy Building has tons of new tenants and is full, 320 S. Boston only has a few significant spaces to lease, MidCon is doing better under new management, Park Center is OK, as is the Bank of America Tower.  IBM has taken up naerly all the space on the east side of Boston between 5th and 6th (not sure how much of that is going away).  Petroleum Club is signing new leases.

Some of the C spaces are seeing significant renovations:  the Wright building just built out 2 floors.  The building with Schnake Turnbo (brain fart) has seen some construction lately. 

Vandezer, Tulsa Club, YMCA all promised to be renovated.  Ground broken on two new residential projects in the last month.

I hope this trend continues!  OneOk taking up that huge chunk of "A" space may spur some new construction or, better yet, total renovation of a couple older buildings.

If anyone is feeling generous, I'd love to own the Sinclair Building with the capital to build it out.

[Oil Capital]

The Tulsa World published permits today for floors 17 - 33 of First Place Tower, at a cost of $300-350,000 per floor.  That indicates a pretty significant buildout:  carpet, ceilings, move some walls, paint everything, new trim, etc.  Building out 16 floors will take some time.

In other news - wow!  I didn't know they were occupying 16 floors.  ONEOK must be expecting some serious growth and/or consolidating tons of employees.  The ONEOK building is full and they are not advertising new lease space.  I believe First Place represents the largest (and maybe even most) of the Class A/B unoccupied office space downtown.  The BOK/Williams buildings are nearly full, but for a floor or two of the cities dirty ice cube.  One place (Cimerex) is fully lease (but for really expensive retail space).  

Good find. Thanks for posting.

But note that it appears they are only building out 11 floors for One Gas (this is not OneOk; this is One Gas, a separate company).  Building permits are listed for the following floors:

17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 33.     From the numbers posted on the Kanbar website, this would appear to be a total of about 150,000 square feet.

It will be interesting to watch what happens at Oneok Plaza after One Gas move over to First Place Tower.   Will Oneok makes more space available for other tenants or will they use the vacated space themselves?

[SXSW]

I imagine the remaining Class C buildings will continue to be converted to residential.  Seeing the downtown Class A vacancy drop is great.  Is this the lowest it has been since well before the recession?  That also includes a couple hundred thousand SF of new Class A space at One Place.

[SXSW]

So I heard from someone that works for a contractor downtown that BOK is interested in possibly building a new tower in the near future.  I think we've discussed this possibility before but interesting to hear it again.  I don't know the occupancy of the Williams Tower but know Williams, WPX, Newfield and Magellan have been growing their operations there as well as BOK. I also know that on another city forum they are saying BOK will be occupying a large amount of space in a new office tower in downtown OKC, separate from the OG+E tower that was proposed last year in downtown OKC.  

[davideinstein]

So I heard from someone that works for a contractor downtown that BOK is interested in possibly building a new tower in the near future.  I think we've discussed this possibility before but interesting to hear it again.  I don't know the occupancy of the Williams Tower but know Williams, WPX, Newfield and Magellan have been growing their operations there as well as BOK. I also know that on another city forum they are saying BOK will be occupying a large amount of space in a new office tower in downtown OKC, separate from the OG+E tower that was proposed last year in downtown OKC.  

Any mention of a location?

[swake]

Any mention of a location?

Best guess would be where the autobank was on 2nd. It's a whole block right next to the BOk Center, I assume BOk still owns it.