Shell plans $37M makeover at Houston Technology Center

Houston’s economy has diversified since the 1980’s oil bust, but the city’s fortunes are still closely tied to the major players of the energy industry, such as Shell Oil, Exxon, Chevron and Baker Hughes.

The latter two have made recent real estate moves that will reverberate in the local economy, now it’s Shell’s turn.

A building on the sprawling campus of Houston’s Shell Technology Center — the largest of Shell Oil’s three technology hubs (the others are in Amsterdam and Bangalore) — will be getting a $37 million upgrade later this year.

The renovation to the interior and exterior of the 42,124 square-foot building built in the 1970s is expected to start in early December 2022 and be completed in December 2024, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records.

The building’s interior and exterior will get improvements and a “new bottle yard” to support the site’s new laboratories.

Located at 3333 HWY 6 South in far west Houston, near the Energy Corridor where many global energy companies have their North American headquarters, the Shell Technology Center sits on 200 acres and has 44 buildings, making up 1.2 million square feet of laboratory and office space.

In 2012, the site underwent an expansion and renovation adding 150,000 square feet, and brought together Shell’s upstream research and technology divisions from the Bellaire Technology Center and downstream research and development and engineering sections from the Westhollow Technology Center to create the Shell Technology Center Houston.

Representatives from Shell did not return The Real Deal’s request for more details on the project.

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