Hurricane-Ravaged Businesses Turning to Houston, Dallas

Oil and gas companies, many with offices in both Houston and New Orleans, already are lining up extra space as the city prepares for the influx of at least 10,000 more evacuees who've been holed up in the Superdome and are en route to the Astrodome with yesterday's orders for everyone to get out of the Big Easy. In Dallas, the calls for space predominately are coming from financial firms, says one broker who's negotiating a turnkey office deal and coming to the future tenant's aid by helping to find corporate housing for him and his employees.

Another building owner's rep says a class A office tenant in Las Colinas has jumped into talks for an immediate half floor or 10,000 sf to get room for its New Orleans team. A company in Dallas yesterday e-mailed an alert to the business community to find a helicopter to lift a 20,000-pound generator up to top of the 50-story One Shell Building in New Orleans.

"We are definitely getting calls," says John Goff, CEO with Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. Meanwhile, the Crescent team started contacting its existing customers and their neighbors to offer with relocation help from New Orleans and other devastated Gulf Coast cities.

Crescent also is matching employee donations to the American Red Cross relief fund for Hurricane Katrina victims. Similarly, BOMA International has organized a disaster relief fund with all donations earmarked for distribution to BOMA members and their families in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. BOMA Fort Worth is collecting used clothing and donations plus kicking in $2,000. BOMA Houston is planning a citywide food and clothing drive while aid plans also are under way by BOMA Atlanta. BOMA Dallas will to assist with relocations and jobs for displaced members, with the most openings now available for building engineers.

Goff says it's too early to speculate how long it will take before affected businesses can work in their homeports. "Long term, clearly there are going to be some businesses displaced," he tells GlobeSt.com. "I think companies are looking for near- to mid-term solutions."

Goff says Crescent's Houston team has fielded the most calls for office space since Tuesday. "The center of the energy industry in the world is Houston so that's the logical place for them to go," he says.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided 475 buses to transport at least 10,000 of the 23,000 evacuees from the Superdome to the Astrodome, a 350-mile trek. Gov. Rick Perry says the stadium is available until December or longer if needed. The Texas embrace includes opening doors to public schools for sheltered children whose families are homeless due to the hurricane.

"The city will not be functional for two or three months," New Orleans Ray Nagin said during yesterday's press conference. Many risk analysts are now saying it will much longer before there are any signs of recovery, with some predicting the city will never be the same. Katrina's preliminary damage estimates now exceed $25 billion, making it the costliest hurricane in US history.

BOMA Dallas executive director Joseph Marchant sent an e-mail offering help to BOMA New Orleans president Jane Upshaw, an employee of Dallas-based Regis Property Management Co.--and got a response. "This is the 1st day that I have had electricity & been able to have any kind of communication. Phones are down, can't even get thru on cell phones. My company has been wonderful to its employees & we all still have jobs & pay checks, for now at least, & auto deposit, thank God. We really don't even know all of the devastation except what we are looking at on TV like everyone else. We know we won't be able to go back for a while, but all of us did leave town & are fine. Some of my employees have lost their homes. As I receive info, I will pass it along. Thanks for your concern & help. Please continue to pray."--Jane.

Marchant says other than donations, there's little that can be done at this time. "I really think they're going to need our help putting the buildings back into operation," he says."When the levees are up and they can get the water out, then we'll be coordinating assistance and special services that are needed to restore their office buildings."