The new development is located adjacent the San Francisco-based oil company's 92-acre, 1.4 million-square-foot Chevron Park complex that is part of Bishop Ranch-–on land Chevron sold to the park's developer Sunset Development Co. in late 1999. Chevron Park is home to around 3,200 Chevron employees and contractors.

The new building will hold 500 employees, some of whom are currently housed at rented locations with expiring leases elsewhere in the 585-acre business park. Hap Payne, president of Chevron Business & Real Estate Services, says the additional space requirements "are, in the main, the result of growth of our Web-based e-businesses."

It is rumored Chevron will be taking more of the space in Bishop Ranch I as it is developed. San Francisco-based McKesson HBOC Inc also is said to be interested in space. Lease rates are believed to be in the $40/sf range. More lease announcements are expected by April.

The Chevron lease comes on the heels of the lease up of the 934,696-sf Bishop Ranch 3. Bishop Ranch Business Park is home to over 300 companies and their more than 25,000 employees. The business park includes corporate office space, dining, shopping and hotel accommodations located on 585 acres. The park leased around 1 million square feet in both 1999 and 2000.

Besides Chevron's owned and leased holdings in San Ramon, the company occupies a Dublin warehouse, a 600,000-square-foot office complex in Concord and the Richmond Refinery and Research Technology Center. Ten leased floors of a high-rise on Market Street in San Francisco function as the firm's headquarters.