Clean-energy campus

ConocoPhillips to rebuild StorageTek property into research, teaching facility

John Rebchook and Gargi Chakrabarty

Originally published 12:05 a.m., February 21, 2008
Updated 09:26 a.m., February 21, 2008

The Rocky / 2003

ConocoPhillips plans to train employees from more than 40 countries at the Louisville site.

Energy giant ConocoPhillips' purchase of a 432-acre corporate campus in Louisville boosts Colorado's status as a clean-energy hub.

The Houston-based oil and gas company plans to rebuild the campus into a center to research hydrogen fuel cells, solar and wind power and clean diesel fuel made from renewable resources. It also plans to establish a learning center to train employees from more than 40 countries.

"We believe this demonstrates what we've been saying about the new energy economy of Colorado," said Gov. Bill Ritter, announcing the deal Wednesday afternoon at a hastily called news conference at the Holiday Inn Denver International Airport.

"The company recognizes that fossil fuels will be part of our energy future for decades to come. They are building a bridge to the future by investing in new, cleaner technologies and in renewable energy."

ConocoPhillips paid $58.5 million for the campus - among the largest in the world. It houses numerous buildings, warehouses and manufacturing facilities, most of which will be razed.

The new campus is expected to be completed in three or four years.

The Louisville campus won over other competitors because of its proximity to Colorado's major universities and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, in addition to its accessibility to Denver International Airport, said ConocoPhillips spokesman Bill Tanner.

That Louisville ranks No. 3 among Money magazine's top 100 places to live in the United States helped.

"If talking to the employees is any indicator, they are excited about Louisville and there is a sense of optimism for the future," Tanner said. "We are looking forward to expanding our presence in Colorado."

John Poate, vice president for research and technology transfer at the Colorado School of Mines, said Conoco has a research and education relationship with the school that goes back more than 50 years. "And many of our alum are in the company," Poate said. "It's a fine company, one of the super majors."

ConocoPhillips has set up a team to determine how soon the existing buildings will be razed, how many new buildings will be built or how many employees will be hired, he said.

The company has not sought economic incentives from the state, although it will be eligible for some.

ConocoPhillips employs 600 in Colorado, mostly in the gas fields of Piceance Basin straddling Garfield and Rio Blanco counties.

Lawmakers, environmentalists and businesses heralded ConocoPhillips' decision, saying it will bolster Colorado's efforts to advance clean- and renewable-energy technologies.

"The location of this center in Colorado will bring great minds from across the country and the world to our state and will continue to make us a hub for renewable-energy research and development," U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said in an e-mailed statement.

Professor Bryan Willson of Colorado State University said ConocoPhillips would be able to draw on the state's intellectual resources under one umbrella, "a sort of one-stop shop."

"With Danish company Vestas building a wind turbines manufacturing plant near Windsor and now ConocoPhillips, it really emphasizes the critical role of Colorado in terms of being a leader in developing clean-energy technologies," Willson added.

"It's rock and roll," said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. Both Ritter and Clark said ConocoPhillips' global learning center would attract employees that are now trained in Norway or Beijing.

ConocoPhillips bought the property last month from Sun Microsystems, but the buyer remained a mystery until Wednesday. Sun acquired the campus when it bought out StorageTek in 2005 for $4.1 billion.

The campus is mostly vacant. Most of the workers at the former StorageTek site have been relocated and integrated into Sun's operations across U.S. 36 in the Interlocken Business Park.

ConocoPhillips is the third-biggest oil and gas company in the U.S. after Exxon Mobil and Chevron. The company explores for oil and gas in more than 30 countries and has estimated proven reserves of 11.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, excluding its Canadian oil sands investment.

ConocoPhillips perhaps is best-known to consumers through its more than 10,000 Conoco, Phillips 66 and 76 gas stations. The company has six operating segments, including fuels technology, gas gathering, chemicals and power generation.

In addition to conventional fields such as petroleum engineering, School of Mines' Poate said ConocoPhillips has worked with the school recently in the renewable-energy area. He also cited the company's participation in the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, part of the 1-year-old Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden likewise has worked with Conoco-Phillips in biofuels research, said George Douglas, NREL spokesman.

"I don't think anyone knows enough detail" yet about Conoco's plans, Douglas said, "but we're always happy to see people pushing hard in the renewable-energy business."

Jeff Smith contributed to this report.

Guess who?

The best-kept secret in real estate was revealed Wednesday: ConocoPhillips is the mystery buyer of the former StorageTek campus in Louisville, pictured.

* Overview: Houston-based ConocoPhillips will tear down most of the buildings on the 432-acre campus and build a global training center and global technology center. The technology center will be a hub for research and development of renewable energy and carbon-fuels recovery.

* Price:The oil company paid $58.5 million last month to buy the property from Sun Microsystems.

* Timeline: The construction of the new campus - larger than Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., campus - is expected to be completed in 2011 or 2012.

* Impact: The number of permanent employees is not known, but the training center will attract thousands of ConocoPhillips employees annually.

* In Colorado: ConocoPhillips has 600 employees here. It has a large gasoline storage terminal in Commerce City, oil and gas production in Garfield County and a gas pipeline from Colorado to Texas.

* History: The original Conoco, called the Continental Oil Co., located its headquarters in Denver in the 1870s.

Site bought in '72 for $4.6 million

Storage-Tek founder Jesse Aweida bought the 432 acres that would become the campus for his data storage company in 1972.

To create equity in his startup, Aweida turned around and sold it to the company for exactly what he paid for it.

Aweida said he spent about $11,000 an acre for the Storage- Tek land outside Louisville, for a total price of about $4.6 million.

In an interview with the Rocky last week, he offered some perspective on his sale 36 years ago: "I should have leased it to the company, not sold it to them."

The site was sold to ConocoPhillips last month by Sun Microsystems for $58.5 million.

Sun took over the campus when it bought StorageTek in 2005 for $4.1 billion.

At its peak, StorageTek employed 7,000 people on the property, which has 2 million square feet of space in nine buildings.

The site has been mostly vacant in recent months, as Sun integrated the company into its campus across U.S. 36 in Interlocken Business Park.

• February 21, 2008

  6:42 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  peakoil2008 writes:

  Who is that negative whiner who wrote that crap on page 2, 2-21-08?
  Tell him not to quit his day job. His alternative employment might be pumping $6 gas, and here in Colorado we pump our own. Do his parents have a basement he can live in?