BHP adds to Houston’s Uptown skyline with 600K-SF office tower

HOUSTON – BHP Billiton Ltd. and its contractor have filed a swath of building permits for its 600,000-sf Class A office tower, which will change the skyline within the Uptown District.

D.E. Harvey Builders Inc. is overseeing the construction of the 30-story structure being built on 2.72 acres within the Four Oaks Place office complex on Post Oak Blvd.

Construction of the tower began in October 2013.

The permits filed show construction plans for floors nine to 28 with an anticipated cost of $2.5 million per floor.

The original intention was to consolidate the company’s U.S. employees at this one tower, which will have 594,000 rentable sf. 

The company anticipates moving in sometime in the first half of 2017. This move will end up vacating between 200,000 sf and 300,000 sf of office space in the Galleria area which will add to the area’s growing inventory of empty office space.

While shelling out the necessary dough to keep the building on track, BHP announced it would cut its capital spending by $200 million in an October earnings statement.

In May, the company said it would cut its exploration capital expenditures to $9 billion in the 2016, down from $12.6 billion in 2015.