XTO Energy has put its corporate headquarters building in downtown Fort Worth up for sale as part of its continuing effort to sell most of its local properties before relocating most of its workforce to Houston.
Built in 1920, the W.T. Waggoner Building at 810 Houston St. is regarded as one of the most iconic of XTO’s holdings because it serves as corporate headquarters and has historical significance as one of the earliest skyscrapers in Texas and the Southwest.
The 20-story double-tower building was designed by the renowned architecture firm of Sanguinet & Staats and appeared to resemble the Equitable Building, a New York City icon, according to fortwortharchitecture.com.
The Waggoner Building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. It has been remodeled but still retains original characteristics from its early use as the Continental National Bank building between 1920 and 1957, the architecture website said.
The real estate brokerage firm of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is marketing the building, which includes 119,846 square feet of rentable office space and an adjoining 32,000-square-foot surface lot that now accommodates 92 parking spaces.
The lot is one of the few remaining undeveloped lots in the core of downtown and offers an opportunity for redevelopment, according to JLL.
The Waggoner Building is close to the Fort Worth Convention Center and Sundance Square with its many shopping, dining and entertainment spots.
“The Waggoner Building is one of the most well-known and recognizable buildings in Fort Worth,” JLL Vice President Ryan Matthews said in a statement. “Its position within downtown and its potential for development on the adjoining surface lot create a transformational opportunity for whomever acquires this iconic asset.”
JLL has already facilitated the sale of four of XTO’s seven Fort Worth buildings, totaling 281,204 square feet of office space. The sale prices were not undisclosed.
Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp., owner of XTO Energy, announced last summer that it planned to sell six of the buildings and would transfer 1,600 workers from Fort Worth to Houston by 2020.
Most recently, JLL announced that the Petroleum Building, another historic downtown building owned by XTO, was acquired by Sundance Square. That 14-story office building occupies a city block at West Sixth Street between Houston and Throckmorton streets.
The building, with about 117,000 square feet of space, was sold with an accompanying 12-story parking garage connected by an enclosed skywalk. The garage has 534 parking places and some retail space.
The other XTO properties already sold are:
• The Binyon-O’Keefe Building at 210 E. Seventh St. in downtown.
• The former Swift & Co. Building at 600 E. Exchange Ave. in the Stockyards. It was sold as office space.
• The Montgomery Ward/Tindall Storage building at 801 Grove St. in downtown. It was bought by the Fort Worth Transportation Authority as its future headquarters.
XTO’s remaining properties are the Bob R. Simpson building at 711 Houston St. and the building at 714 Main St. that was formerly known as the Transport Life Building and the Continental Life Insurance Building. XTO has indicated that it plans to keep one building to accommodate about 350 employees who will remain in Fort Worth but has not announced which one.