10-07-2013 07:17 PM

Developer breaks ground on BHP Billiton Petroleum skyscraper — Slideshow

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A rendering of the BHP Billiton tower bridge enclosure.
Click through the slideshow for more renderings of the tower.




Construction begins Monday on BHP Billiton Tower, a 600,000-square-foot Class A office tower that will change the skyline within the Uptown District.
The 23-story structure is being built on 2.72 acres within the Four Oaks Place office complex — better known to some as the site of the old 24-Hour fitness on Post Oak Boulevard.
The development is 100 percent preleased to BHP Billiton, a major global diversified resources company.
Click through the slideshow to see renderings of the BHP Billiton Tower.
Houston Business Journal first revealed plans for the tower after obtaining a company email about the project earlier this year.
The structure, which will have 594,000 rentable square feet, will consolidate the company’s U.S. employees — now scattered in 4 Oaks Place, downtown Houston and Tulsa, Okla.
BHP Billiton Petroleum currently has 1,800 employees in Houston and said it plans to have about 2,000 in the new structure by the time it is completed in October 2016. The company is a subsidiary of Australian oil giant BHP Billiton Group.
Other features of the building, designed by New Haven, Conn.-based Pickard Chilton Architects Inc. with help from Kendall Heaton Associates of Houston., will be a skybridge that connects the new building to the 1360 Post Oak tower, LEED certification and a garage-roof garden on level 8.
The developer for the project is Transwestern, which also handles the leasing for 4 Oaks Place. TIAA-CREF owns the building.
After the new tower is erected, Four Oaks Place will total about 2.3 million square feet.
Click here to see other major campus expansions planned or underway for energy companies throughout Houston.
Shaina Zucker covers commercial and residential real estate, construction, retail and hospitality for the Houston Business Journal. For her breaking stories and industry insights, follow her on Twitter.


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