BP would sell ARCO Alaska building after acquisition

Existing BP headquarters in midtown has more employee amenities, is better sized for estimated needs

Kristen Nelson

PNA News Editor

If the company’s proposed acquisition of ARCO closes, BP Amoco will keep its existing BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. headquarters building in midtown and sell ARCO Alaska Inc.’s larger downtown headquarters building.

BP Exploration (Alaska) spokesman Ronnie Chappell told PNA Sept. 20 that the company had notified employees of the decision.

Three factors were considered in the decision, Chappell said.

The first was size. While “we don’t know how big the headquarters’ organization is going to be in terms of number of people,” he said, “we do know that this building (the present BP headquarters) with its 950-employee capacity is more than large enough to accommodate the combined headquarters organization.”

The second consideration, he said, was employee amenities. The BP building has an 18-acre campus which boosts ample employee parking — a lot more than is available downtown. In addition, the BP cafeteria is larger and the fitness center somewhat larger.

“And with the recent ribbon cutting at the new BP early learning center that sits on campus this facility also offers on site daycare which is not available at the ARCO building,” Chappell said.

The final factor in the evaluation was location for resale: “Our evaluation of the two buildings showed that because of its downtown location that ARCO building could be more easily marketed,” he said.

BP would begin moving people into the midtown headquarters after regulatory approval of the acquisition and the move is expected to continue over six to eight months, Chappell said.