QuoteTULSA, Okla. (AP) - Tulsa-based Williams Cos. will close its office in Oklahoma City and plans to move most of the 400 jobs to Tulsa.
The energy and pipeline company said in a statement Wednesday that most of the 400 employees are expected to move to the Tulsa headquarters, while some jobs will be eliminated. Williams said a severance package will be offered to employees who lose their jobs.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/30/tulsa-based-williams-closing-oklahoma-city-office-/
Oklahoma City news take on it: (not much to it really)
http://www.koco.com/article/photo-of-burned-bible-passage-found-at-dollywood-goes-viral/8384778
Tulsa World:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/energy/williams-cos-to-close-oklahoma-city-office-move-most-jobs/article_3784d1df-6a4c-552e-936a-37791a53945d.html
Obviously great news. That's up to 400 top end jobs that will support at least that number of secondary jobs (usually a multiplier). These aren't $12 medicaid eligible jobs (those jobs are needed too, but you don't see the same multiplier effect) and we didn't have to bribe Williams to do it.
Next question - where does Williams put 400 new Tulsa employees? If all 400 jobs materialize, that's ~70,000 square feet needed by conventional standards. Or they were all put in a cubical farm they could fit into about a floor and a half of One Technology Center (http://www.cbre.us/o/tulsa/AssetLibrary/100_S_Cincinnati_Floor_14_Email.pdf) (City Hall). Or 3 1/2 floors in one of the black towers (fka Williams I & II). I don't think any of those structures have that space available, and Williams will want Class A space - the Tower has reportedly been full for years.
New building rumors? Anchor tenant for some new development? (I have no knowledge, just throwing out guesses)
Quote from: cannon_fodder on December 01, 2016, 08:30:23 AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/30/tulsa-based-williams-closing-oklahoma-city-office-/
Oklahoma City news take on it: (not much to it really)
http://www.koco.com/article/photo-of-burned-bible-passage-found-at-dollywood-goes-viral/8384778
Tulsa World:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/energy/williams-cos-to-close-oklahoma-city-office-move-most-jobs/article_3784d1df-6a4c-552e-936a-37791a53945d.html
Obviously great news. That's up to 400 top end jobs that will support at least that number of secondary jobs (usually a multiplier). These aren't $12 medicaid eligible jobs (those jobs are needed too, but you don't see the same multiplier effect) and we didn't have to bribe Williams to do it.
Next question - where does Williams put 400 new Tulsa employees? If all 400 jobs materialize, that's ~70,000 square feet needed by conventional standards. Or they were all put in a cubical farm they could fit into about a floor and a half of One Technology Center (http://www.cbre.us/o/tulsa/AssetLibrary/100_S_Cincinnati_Floor_14_Email.pdf) (City Hall). Or 3 1/2 floors in one of the black towers (fka Williams I & II). I don't think any of those structures have that space available, and Williams will want Class A space - the Tower has reportedly been full for years.
New building rumors? Anchor tenant for some new development? (I have no knowledge, just throwing out guesses)
Hmm...
I work at PennWell Publishing at 15th/Sheridan. Down the street from us until just last month, Gateway Mortgage had a two story office complex. I don't think it will hold 400 people (I hope not else there will be parking problems like there were before Gateway moved to Jenks last month) but it's now for sale.
Not an ideal location given their Tulsa office though.
Seems like a perfect tenant for the Santa Fe Square office component!
As a Williams employee in Tulsa, I can attest that there is plenty of empty space here in the Tower and Williams Resource Center (i.e., lower building connected to the Tower). As you'll recall, Williams let about 250 people go from the Tulsa office in March (not to mention quite a bit of natural attrition during the ETE debacle). Plus, there is a large, recently completed, and currently empty build-out on the 3rd floor of the Resource Center that belongs to Williams. Apparently, the company is putting its money where it's mouth is regarding cost cutting/savings. This is a good thing for the long-term health of the organization, though the former Access employees in OKC have had a wild ride the past few years!
Are Mary Fallin and the Chamber taking credit yet?
Tulsa, FTW!!!
Quote from: Conan71 on December 01, 2016, 11:46:00 AM
Tulsa, FTW!!!
Between this and OPEC's deal to cut output today, Tulsa's energy sector should be on the rebound now. Hopefully, another burst bubble survived.
Quote from: New Slang on December 01, 2016, 10:24:29 AM
As a Williams employee in Tulsa, I can attest that there is plenty of empty space here in the Tower and Williams Resource Center (i.e., lower building connected to the Tower). As you'll recall, Williams let about 250 people go from the Tulsa office in March (not to mention quite a bit of natural attrition during the ETE debacle). Plus, there is a large, recently completed, and currently empty build-out on the 3rd floor of the Resource Center that belongs to Williams. Apparently, the company is putting its money where it's mouth is regarding cost cutting/savings. This is a good thing for the long-term health of the organization, though the former Access employees in OKC have had a wild ride the past few years!
Welcome to the forum!
And thank you for the information. I forgot that they let people go, even knowing several of them personally it slipped my mind. So my "busting at the seems" rumors are outdated a year. Maybe the availability of space was part of the financial reason this makes sense now.
But it is way more fun to speculate on new buildings. ;D
A year or two ago this would likely mean they would be looking for new space and maybe a new building. But as was mentioned they let go of 250 employees earlier this year and there is unused space in the Resource Center. Also remember Newfield is closing (or maybe already closed) their Tulsa office with a few hundred employees and they were in the Tower.
Good news for downtown retail.
Quote from: davideinstein on December 01, 2016, 04:49:01 PM
Good news for downtown retail.
Sweetie, those people do not walk over to this part of downtown. Good if you deliver sandwiches on bikes though!
Every year before Mayfest I add another something to the mural off of Main and 3rd. I work on and off over the course of multiple days and often around lunch time or around 5 ish. You could fool me that there is anyone even in those buildings! I may see a dozen or two at most cross the street each day even around lunch time. You sure see a whole line of cars heading out around 5. Its the strangest thing. Perhaps there are a lot of people that head north across the tracks each day?
Quote from: TheArtist on December 01, 2016, 07:34:48 PM
Sweetie, those people do not walk over to this part of downtown. Good if you deliver sandwiches on bikes though!
Every year before Mayfest I add another something to the mural off of Main and 3rd. I work on and off over the course of multiple days and often around lunch time or around 5 ish. You could fool me that there is anyone even in those buildings! I may see a dozen or two at most cross the street each day even around lunch time. You sure see a whole line of cars heading out around 5. Its the strangest thing. Perhaps there are a lot of people that head north across the tracks each day?
Hahaha....Sweetie....Good one....!!!
Quote from: TheArtist on December 01, 2016, 07:34:48 PM
Sweetie, those people do not walk over to this part of downtown. Good if you deliver sandwiches on bikes though!
Every year before Mayfest I add another something to the mural off of Main and 3rd. I work on and off over the course of multiple days and often around lunch time or around 5 ish. You could fool me that there is anyone even in those buildings! I may see a dozen or two at most cross the street each day even around lunch time. You sure see a whole line of cars heading out around 5. Its the strangest thing. Perhaps there are a lot of people that head north across the tracks each day?
They actually walk down Boston Ave. every day to eat lunch in the Deco District daily. Tons of them. Not sure why you're being condescending. Additional 400 jobs in fantastic news for the district.
Quote from: davideinstein on December 05, 2016, 11:40:51 PM
They actually walk down Boston Ave. every day to eat lunch in the Deco District daily. Tons of them. Not sure why you're being condescending. Additional 400 jobs in fantastic news for the district.
I am quite happy we are getting the additional jobs! I was just pointing out my observations. You know what. I think I am going to see about getting us some pedestrian counts for a few spots in our area this coming year so we can tell how many people on average, per day/hour go down some of the streets around us. That way we can see just what this "tons" of people actually is.
Quote from: TheArtist on December 07, 2016, 01:00:08 PM
I am quite happy we are getting the additional jobs! I was just pointing out my observations. You know what. I think I am going to see about getting us some pedestrian counts for a few spots in our area this coming year so we can tell how many people on average, per day/hour go down some of the streets around us. That way we can see just what this "tons" of people actually is.
Are pedestrian counts something that city does? And I would guess then make available to businesses...?? How do they do that? Set up a camera and just actually count with some "people identification" software?
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on December 07, 2016, 08:58:26 PM
Are pedestrian counts something that city does? And I would guess then make available to businesses...?? How do they do that? Set up a camera and just actually count with some "people identification" software?
Yes, sometimes cities do them but often the city merely assists groups of volunteers to do them. A group like Tulsa's Typros for example. There are organizations that can help your group do them with instruction manuals/videos etc. and there are sample "count sheets" and other materials. It's basically just a group of people going out and doing it, nothing too high tech.
Yes the city would often make them available to businesses in order to help attract retail to an area and they can be used by the city to track trends, help planning and infrastructure projects, etc.
I have thrown the idea out several times and lets just say it was mentioned to me "in the hallways" afterwards, that they don't wan't to do them, well, because the city would look bad and we have a better chance of attracting businesses without them knowing the "truth" of where we are currently.
Frankly I think businesses know where we are they can simply look and see how poor our pedestrian traffic is, its pretty durned obvious lol. But I think there is value in doing the numbers to force the city to look at the reality of it, and take steps to make things better versus burying our heads in the sand, looking the other way and going about business as usual. Plus, if anything we will be able to at least show growth trajectories "We were here a couple years ago, we are here now." and that could be positive.
Sadly, whats likely to happen is that we will get this next wave of development, then in a few years everyone will see that things haven't improved much pedestrian wise and retail will still struggle and THEN there will be enough of an urgency to finally face reality and do something. Basically we could have been doing things 5 years ago that we will instead be starting to do 5 years from now, in a much less flexible and more difficult development situation.
Yeah, we sill have a long way to go. However, downtown is far better today than it was 10 years ago and far better than 5 years ago. I thought it was doing pretty good 5 years ago, but if you do a street-view around Brady or Blue Dome, it was a ghost town, empty streets. So now we're past the ghost town stage and into the inhabited, but not densely stage.
I went to the Boxyard. It looks really neat. It is ambitious. I hope Tulsans support it and the owners market it in ways to bring out Tulsans from all over. Midtown/downtown junkies can't keep everything up and going. :P It sounds like they're already a bit surprised at the lack of foot traffic there so far. The cold weather might be keeping people in, but looks like downtown is still not a holiday shopping destination. And on weeknights, besides the big-name established places, most places are pretty sparse. Perhaps new places have been opening faster than demand will keep up with on weekdays. It goes back to Tulsans not supporting their urban core. Many blame it on parking too (a non-issue). Seems cultural. Woodland and many other suburban auto-centric places are always packed out this time of year. Even though you walk much further in Woodland than downtown, the perceived inconvenience of going downtown is exceeding the benefit for most people while it's only weekends where parking gets somewhat tough compared to elsewhere (still easy though). Hopefully Santa Fe will change that (1300 spaces, massive shopping area, surrounded by existing local eats and bars).
Box yard is a good step to make downtown a destination though. If we have to wait until Santa Fe Square gets built to become a real shopping area, that would be bad for downtown. Most of the Boxyard shops will be long gone by then if that's the case. Boxyard really should have worked harder to open in the fall (now is a terrible time to open and outdoor-centric shopping mall). They had originally planned to open summer 2016.
They open Saturday so I plan to check it out, support it and hope it goes well!