WPX Energy announced it is building a new $100 million, 11-story headquarters in Tulsa’s downtown historic Greenwood addition.
Demolition of an existing old Spaghetti Warehouse started early Monday morning to make way for the 260,000-square-foot tower.
“At the end of the day we decided the best action is to stay in Tulsa. We have a great team in place, and this allows us to do something for the community that is very positive,” said Rick Muncrief, WPX CEO. “We are betting on the team we have and the assets we’ve put together, and part of that strategy is staying in Tulsa and growing from where we are today.”
Construction is expected to begin in 2020 and wrap up in 2022.
Company officials explored relocating their headquarters to Denver, Dallas and possibly Houston where other major firms are located.
WPX Energy is currently located in the BOK Tower and occupies seven floors. The company indicated that the new headquarters will allow growth of 25 percent.
The project includes 245,000 square feet of office space for WPX, 15,000 square feet of commercial space and nearly 700 parking spaces.
The energy company purchased the property — including the Spaghetti Warehouse building, another warehouse and two parking lots — for a total of $6.5 million, according to the Tulsa World.
The campus and its front door will face east toward Reconciliation Park as a symbolic tribute to the importance of Tulsa remembering its past.
“If you look at the design, it really honors the tradition of the past with a brick facade that fits well in the neighborhood,” Muncrief said. “If you think about the passageway from Greenwood into the Arts District, it tells you two things: No. 1, we want to be a conduit for positive change. No. 2, we want to be a healthy passageway from the past into the future.”
The building will be located on the square block bounded by Detroit Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the east and west and Cameron Street and Reconciliation Way to the north and south.
“WPX has operations across the United States and could have built elsewhere, so the very intentional decision to locate a new corporate headquarters in the Greenwood District shows a deep commitment to Tulsa and the company’s 450 area employees,” said Mike Neal, president and CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber. “This investment in one of Tulsa’s most historic neighborhoods will have a positive economic impact on our community for decades to come.”
“When you look at Tulsa and its history, each era is really defined by the architecture of the buildings that were built in that time,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. “You can see landmark moments in our history. When we became the oil capital of the world and Waite Phillips built the Philtower; when John Williams decided they were not going to move Williams to Houston and instead built the BOK Tower … . We have another important announcement today about an important era in Tulsa history.”
WPX is an exploration and production company that became an independent in 2011 after it spun off from Williams Cos. It employs 450 people in Tulsa with a local payroll of $55 million.
As an exploration and production company, WPX doesn’t operate in Oklahoma. Its major land holdings are in the Permian Basin in west Texas and New Mexico and the Williston Basin in North
