About this...
I'd like to see WTAMU have it's own building off west I-40.
But until then...this still another positive move for WTAMU.
www.amarillo.com/stories/062309/new_news3.shtmlHome > News > Local News
Web-posted Tuesday, June 23, 2009
WT expanding in Chase TowerBy David Pittman
david.pittman@amarillo.com
West Texas A&M University will further expand its fast-growing Amarillo footprint with another floor in the Chase Tower.
The announcement pushes the city's downtown office occupancy rates to the highest in recent memory.
The school will take the entire seventh floor of the Chase Tower, its third in the 31-story building, and add a bookstore on the first floor, officials confirmed Monday.
"We are also making renovations on the 11th floor to create a seminar room and create observation rooms to be used by our social works program," WT President J. Patrick O'Brien said.
WT spokeswoman Rana McDonald said the new floor will provide more room for academic space and part-time faculty.
WT, which now fills a little more than 30,000 square feet in the tallest building between Denver and Fort Worth, began providing classes in Amarillo last fall and offered 52 classes this spring.
The additional space will allow the Canyon-based school to increase its course offerings and degree programs in Amarillo.
With the expansion of WT's Amarillo Center, more than 35,000 square feet of lease space has been added in the past five months, McCartt & Associates broker Aaron Emerson said.
Oil and gas firm Llano Exploration added another 6,300 square feet of space in the Wells Fargo Center at Southeast 10th Avenue and Fillmore Street. Conoco Phillips leased another 8,000 square feet.
The Chase Tower is now 98 percent occupied, Emerson said. The Wells Fargo Center, which was 60 percent occupied earlier this year, is now 76 percent full.
Downtown Amarillo's total occupancy has increased to 93 percent, Emerson said, up from 91 percent earlier this year.
"It takes a lot of work to make a dent in 2 million square feet of office space in Amarillo," said Emerson, whose firm is heavily involved in commercial real estate in the city.
