The real estate manager for ConocoPhillips appeared at a Louisville City Council meeting this week and shed more light on their highly anticipated corporate campus to-be. The meeting was the first in a series of what will prove to be quite a few public meetings and hearings surrounding the re-development of the 432-acre site in south Louisville bordering Highway 36. The major story lines of this meeting were the scope and overall vision of the land.
The project is to be constructed in phases and could take 25 or 30 years to be fully developed. At full capacity the site could employ 7,000 employees and is expected to house the global headquarters for research and development and be a global training center focussing on renewable energy.
The concept for the site is focus on design principles that will be consistent with the renewable energy theme. The company plans to work closely with the National Renewable Energy Lab and others to build a campus with a small footprint. The initial plan is to build on a relatively small portion of the land and surround the buildings with open space. HOK Architects are designing the plan and a spokesman said that they plan to build an astonishing, walkable campus on about half the acreage. Construction is slated to begin in 2011 with operations beginning in 2013.
The arrival of ConocoPhillips to our area will be not only a boon to the economy, directly and indirectly, but will spawn other companies and startups just as IBM’s arrival to the area in the 1970’s established Boulder County as a tech center. This should be exciting to watch and is another reason why investing in area real estate is a great idea. The map below shows and aerial view of the site.
