TransCanada takes Midtown office space

TransCanada Corp. said it has signed a lease for office space in the Calais 1 building in Midtown.

The Calgary-based company is the state’s licensee for developing a multibillion-dollar gas pipeline from the North Slope to a major energy hub in Alberta.

TransCanada is leasing about 7,500 square feet in the Calais building. The office will initially house staff working on environmental, regulatory and land issues.

TransCanada spokeswoman Cecily Dobson said in early November that the company anticipates that “additional employees will be using the office as our work activities in Alaska continue to grow.”

About 50 TransCanada employees and 50 ExxonMobil employees are working on the pipeline project, state officials said in a quarterly pipeline project update earlier in November.

BP and Conoco Phillips are working on a competing proposal to build a North Slope pipeline, called Denali. The Denali staff are headquartered at 188 W. Northern Lights Blvd., a recently built office tower also located in Midtown. Denali officials have said they leased roughly 40,000 square feet in the building.

Both TransCanada and Denali plan to hold so-called open seasons next year, when they will advertise their shipping rates and try to get gas producers to commit to using a pipeline.

—Elizabeth Bluemink, Anchorage Daily News