Midland office spaces mixing perks

MIDLAND – Conventional office space in Midland is giving way to more modern facilities that offer employees additional luxuries that were once only found in larger cities. As more oil industry headquarters, campuses and office buildings emerge around the city, the face of “traditional office space” continues to evolve.

Pioneer Natural Resources, currently located in the Bank of America Building, is constructing a six-story building within the ClayDesta Plaza that will house a day care center, cafeteria and fitness center.

Chevron is building a 340,000-sf campus on 25 acres west of the Scharbauer Sports Complex. A fitness center and cafeteria will also be included in the design.

Each Chevron floor will include a “town center,” which will provide employees an updated coffee bar and flatscreen televisions that feature company news.

Fasken Oil and Ranch Ltd. is constructing The Vineyard, a master-plan development that will include an apartment complex, an elementary school, retail shops and restaurants, single-family homes and a biking and hiking trail.

The first set of apartments, Sandstone Ridge, should be available for occupancy sometime during summer 2014.

Fasken’s new headquarters, located on the development, are already complete, and the company is now constructing two additional 58,000-sf buildings that will be leased to other oil companies. SM Energy Co. will move into one building, which should be finished by April 2014. The other building may have multiple tenants and should be complete by May 2014.

Despite the vast differences between each individual building and campus, employees working inside new oil-company facilities in Midland can expect their environments to be much more state-of-the-art than they once were.