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Fluor Corporation leaving Sugar Land

from The July 2023 Edition of The Fort Bend Business Journal

by Fort Bend Star | Fort Bend Business Journal

from The July 2023 Edition of The Fort Bend Business Journal, page 3

Article from: The July 2023 Edition of The Fort Bend Business Journal

Coming or leaving, Fort Bend a...

By Ken Fountain kfountain@fortbendstar.com

A wide expanse of Sugar Land will soon undergo significant change after the Flour Corporation, whose name has graced a distinctive office building in the Lake Pointe area for decades, announced earlier this month that it is moving its Houston operations to the Energy Corridor.

While the Fluor corporation has not owned the modernistic, 1980s-era building for many years, the engineering design company’s announcement that its approximately 1,600 employees will vacate 1 Fluor Daniel Drive by the second quarter of 2024 brings an end to the significant presence the company has held in Sugar Land for four decades.

In a May 1 press release, Granite Properties announced that it had signed a 12-year lease with Fluor at the 13-story Three Eldrige building on North Eldridge Parkway. Fluor will fully occupy the 13-story, 308,186 square foot, Class A building.

Jennifer Kim, vice president and general manager of Fluor’s Houston operations, told the Fort Bend Star that the long-expected move brings Fluor, which specializes in engineering of energy-industry facilities, brings the company’s operations closer to its customer base that is concentrated in the Energy Cooridor.

The move will also bring Fluor to a newer building (updated in 2020) that offers many of the amenities that are attractive to the younger workers that large companies like Fluor are seeking in a highly competitive labor market. Among those amenities, according to the Granite press release, are “a hospitality-driven lobby with livingroom style furniture, and commissioned paintings and sculptures inspired by nature.”

The three-building Eldridge campus also offers an outdoor, covered workspace called The Yard, with a variety of seating options, Wi-Fi and television sets. Three Eldridge also has space for a café and a conference and training center, according to the release.

While Fluor’s new lease is only for the Three Eldridge building, it has the option to expand into the other building of the campus, Kim said. While its 1,600 employees in Sugar Land are far fewer than when the company first came to Sugar Land in the 1980s, the corporation currently has 300 open positions in its Houston operations, she said.

The city of Sugar Land had long sought to keep Fluor, one of the city’s private employers, in the area, working with the corporation on the development of a 50-acre tract near the present site of the Smart Financial Centre for a new campus. But the company wound up selling the property last September as part of a re-thinking of its global real estate strategy, Kim said.

Kim said Fluor has long valued its association with Sugar Land, and a large portion of its employees at the 1 Fluor Drive building live in the city or nearby. While the company is moving its operations to the Energy Corridor, she said it will continue to maintain an active presence through its community relations efforts.

Fluor’s move leaves the future of the 1 Fluor Drive building in limbo. The building still has many current lessees, including the office of the Fort Bend Economic Development Corporation.

Elizabeth Huff, Sugar Land’s economic development director, said the campus and the surrounding Lake Pointe area are a focus of the city’s push to ensure that the city remains an economically vibrant place. In recent months, there have been several proposals, supported by city leaders, for new multipurpose developments in the area.

What becomes of the original 1984 Fluor building itself is one of the biggest questions. Kim, of Fluor, said the building was essentially a copy of the the company’s then headquarters in Irvine, Calif.

According to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, that building, constructed between 1977-1981, was designed by the Seattle-based firm of architect Welton D. Becket. Kim said the original design was based on significant input from Fluor engineers.

Huff said there are ongoing discussions for a new company to purchase the campus, but she could not disclose details.

“While we’re disappointed to see Fluor leave, we understand the space no longer fits the needs of the company from a physical, cost or workforce perspective,” Sugar Land spokesman Doug Adolph said in an emailed statement. “That said, we see tremendous opportunity for this area. Lake Pointe, the area in which Fluor is located, is a key redevelopment area for our city and an incredible 52-acre opportunity for the future of Sugar Land. We’ve been planning for Fluor’s relocation and actively looking for new opportunities for this site.

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