Amarillo sells land for Xcel HQ construction

AMARILLO – Amarillo City Council cleared the way for construction of the Southwestern Public Service headquarters downtown by approving the sale of a half-block of land at the site.

In exchange for the land, the city will get round-the-clock, exclusive access to 110 spaces for 60 years.

The site was the former Renaissance Office Park and Renaissance Condominiums at South Buchanan St. and Southeast Eighth Ave.

The city owns half the block where Minnesota developer Opus Corp. will build the $42 million office tower and parking garage.

SunTrust Rogers Humphrey, an Atlanta-based financial consulting company, assembled an ownership group to lease the building to Xcel for 20 years with possible extensions.

“The transfer of the city-owned land is the last major step before construction begins. We anticipate demolition of the existing building to begin before the end of the month, and we hope to be in full-scale construction by this summer,” said spokesperson Wes Reeves.

The company expects its lease expenses will increase average residential power costs by six cents a month after it moves out of its Chase Tower offices.

There will be 590 spaces in the garage and 114,000 sf of office space in addition to 5,000 sf of retail space on the ground floor. Construction should be completed by February 2017.

More background information? Amarillo downtown: Xcel Energy to anchor new $42M building.

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