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2000 St. James Place is a 12-story,^[1] 335,000 square foot (31,100 m2) office building in Houston, Texas. It formerly housed the headquarters of Minute Maid.^[2] The building is located on a 6 acres (2.4 ha) site,^[1] and is in proximity to The Galleria.^[3]

History

2000 St. James Place was built in 1978.^[1] In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company purchased the property from Bechtel Corporation, to be used as the headquarters of Minute Maid, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola. Minute Maid moved into 2000 St. James Place in 1986.^[4] In 2006, the building underwent an $11.8 million renovation. In 2007, Coca-Cola sold the building to Cameron Management, Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo), and a group of local investors for an undisclosed amount. Coca-Cola then leased 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²) of space in the building to continue housing the Minute Maid headquarters until the headquarters were moved to Sugar Land Town Square in Sugar Land, Texas.^[5] Anticipating the departure of Minute Maid, Cameron Management planned to market the building as having the largest block of contiguous office space in the Uptown area.^[3]

Post Minute Maid

On February 16, 2009, Minute Maid moved its headquarters from 2000 St. James Place to Sugar Land Town Square.^[6] In 2009, 2000 St. James Place became the only office building in Texas—and one of only 49 buildings in the United States—to receive the LEED-EB v2.0 Gold certification.^[1] In 2010, Wachovia Bank foreclosed the vacant building, taking it from owner Cameron Management Inc. The building was offered for sale on May 4, 2010 at the Harris County courthouse, but there were no buyers.^[2]

Weatherford

In late 2010, Weatherford International signed a lease agreement on the entire property.^[7] With the relocation of Weatherford to this building, Luby's Inc., particularly their Culinary Services Division, now serves as their cafeteria provider. A Salad Bar, Deli, Main Line, Global Bar, Juice Bar, and Grill is open every weekday from 7:00am–10:00am for breakfast and 11:00am–2:00pm for lunch.

Design

Nearly one third of the building's site is landscaped to reduce heat island effects and storm water drainage. The property has high efficiency chillers installed, an automation control system managed through a Web-based user interface, and to save energy, designers coated the roof with special material.^[1] The building has a cafeteria, a fitness center, and 1,230 parking spaces.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dawson, Jennifer. "2000 St. James Place office building first in Texas with stringent LEED rating." Houston Business Journal. Tuesday August 18, 2009. Modified on Wednesday August 19, 2009. Retrieved on May 14, 2010.
^ ^a ^b Dawson, Jennifer. "Foreclosure squeezes 2000 St. James Place building." Houston Business Journal. Friday May 14, 2010. Retrieved on May 14, 2010.
^ ^a ^b Dawson, Jennifer. "Coca-Cola sells Minute Maid Building." Houston Business Journal. Monday October 29, 2007. Retrieved on May 14, 2010.
^ Dawson, Jennifer. "Big Firms Moving to Suburbs, part II." Houston Business Journal. Friday July 27, 2007. Retrieved on June 17, 2009.
^ ^a ^b Dawson, Jennifer. "Minute Maid will lease back space after building sale to local buyers." Houston Business Journal. Friday November 2, 2007. Retrieved on May 14, 2010.
^ Dawson, Jennifer. "Minute Maid headquarters opens in Sugar Land." Houston Business Journal. Monday February 16, 2009. Retrieved on May 14, 2010.
^ Sarnoff, Nancy (2010-09-24). "Weatherford to occupy old Minute Maid building". Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved 2013-04-12. Weatherford International has signed a lease for the 12-story, 335,000-square-foot office building at 2000 St. James Place. The Swiss-based oil-field service company will consolidate its Houston-based corporate support and regional management offices into the building in 2012. "With the market the way it is we just felt this was a golden opportunity to bring all of our people together and provide them with a much better office environment," said Jo-Lynne Busic, director of global real estate and construction for Weatherford, which was represented in lease negotiations by Charles Gordon and Craig Beyer of CB Richard Ellis. The relocation is expected to bring together 1,300 Weatherford employees and reduce its Houston property cost structure, Busic said. The company now occupies space in three other Galleria-area buildings and one near Bush Intercontinental Airport.