Enron to Sell HQ on Bankruptcy Milestone 1 hour, 13 minutes ago By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer
HOUSTON - Two years after Enron went bankrupt, the rented oval-shaped glass tower that the company calls home is going on the auction block.
Interested buyers whose bids are deemed acceptable will attend an auction Tuesday at the Houston headquarters — two years to the date after Enron collapsed amid a string of damaging revelations of hidden debt and inflated profits.
Enron spokesman Eric Thode said Wednesday the highest bid will be presented to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez in New York for approval. A sale is expected to close early next year, coinciding with the relocation of the roughly 1,000 workers still at Enron's headquarters to smaller digs in Houston.
A partnership of banks, led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., one of Enron's largest creditors, owns the building, which has an appraised value of $92.5 million. Proceeds of the sale will be divided among those lenders.
Enron followed a similar procedure late last year when the company sold its newer, adjacent 40-story glass tower once intended to showcase its now-defunct trading operation. That building, which had been owned by Enron, sold for $102 million — less than half its $240 million construction cost.
Most outward indications that the headquarters is Enron's home are gone. The trademark tilted "E" logos were sold at property auctions last year. On Dec. 3, 2001, the day after Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, thousands of abruptly laid-off employees streamed out of the building, many given just half an hour to pack their belongings.
Since then, the building that once housed more than 7,000 workers has steadily emptied as employees quit or worked themselves out of a job by wrapping up contracts or helping Enron prepare to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
Currently about 1,200 workers at the headquarters are consolidated on a few floors, and about 200 of those will be laid off in December and January. Elsewhere, Enron employs about 12,000 workers.