Relocations, expansions boost home sales in Houston

By Michelle Leigh Smith

Major commercial development plans by large corporations are often in the negotiation phase for years, and tight-lipped secrecy is the only way to ensure success.

“I remember when Conoco made the decision to move out of Greenway Plaza, long before the merger with Phillips Petroleum Co.,” recalled David Hightower, executive vice president and chief development officer for Wolff Cos., a longtime Houston land development and investment firm. “When they came to our offices, they would rent cars and only use first names. We didn’t know who they were or where they were from — it turned out to be a distance of two miles, but they still rented cars just to make sure no one could run a license plate.”

Many companies decline to share details about themselves during initial meetings with third parties. The Greater Houston Partnership often deals with outside consultants hired by a company who only share, “Our client is an engineering company, and they are looking at Houston,” or “It’s a manufacturing concern, and Houston is on their short list,” said Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research for the GHP. “Quite often, that’s all we know about the company we are trying to recruit.”

One of the largest and most secretive projects to-date is Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp.’s (NYSE: XOM) 385-acre campus under construction in north Houston. The energy company will relocate thousands of employees from various locations in Virginia, Ohio and around Houston to its new campus south of the Woodlands, starting in early 2014, with the transfers to be complete in 2015.

“We worked on the project for two years before we knew who it was,” said Jim Kollaer, director of Houston-based consulting firm Kollaer Advisors LLC. “So many times, strategies are developed internally and you don’t even know it’s going on. When there’s a (master-planned community) that works with the corporate strategy, then that’s the best of all worlds.”

And big moves yield big sales for homebuilders and residential Realtors.

For the complete article, please go to:
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2013/10/25/relocations-expansions-boost-home-sales.html