Murphy Oil stuns city, world once again
Boomtown Tower
Murphy CEO Claiborne Deming is getting pretty good at making stunning announcements. First the Murphy Promise, and now news that El Dorado will soon be home to the world’s tallest building.
Deming, flanked by executives from the multi-million dollar corporation, smiled and drew applause as he announced his company’s plans to construct a massive 150 story building dubbed “Boomtown Tower.” The building will be located in the center of downtown El Dorado, Deming said.
“What an exciting day for us; what a great day for El Dorado,” Deming told a crowd of more than 300 gathered on the steps of the Union County Courthouse, which will soon be torn down to make way for construction of the $5 billion Boomtown Tower.
Deming said the company has planned for some time to construct a large building that will “better represent” Murphy’s status in the oil and gas world. And what better time than now, when profits are high as a result of record oil prices, he said.
The first four floors of the tower will house a new Union County Courthouse, followed by 50 floors of apartments, condos and retail space. The remainder of the building will be dedicated to Murphy Oil and their worldwide operations.
The top five floors will feature penthouse suites for Deming and other high-level executives.
Deming said that with the El Dorado Promise, “enough interest has been generated from our other corporate offices throughout the world that they all want to move here to El Dorado, so that’s what we are doing.”
More than 4,000 of Murphy’s employees will relocate to El Dorado and live in Boomtown Tower, Deming said.
Connecting the tower with a major airport was a “huge concern” for company officials, so plans call for building a subway that will link Boomtown Tower with a new high speed rail system to be constructed between El Dorado and Dallas.
“This will really give us an international connection,” Deming said. “We can have our people depart a plane at Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport, board a high speed train, and be in El Dorado within two hours.”
News of the Boomtown Tower quickly spread around El Dorado and the world.
Union County Judge Bobby Edmonds, whose office will soon be reduced to rubble and temporarily relocated across town to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, called Deming’s announcement “remarkable.”
“We really don’t know what to make of this right now,” Edmonds said.
Of course Edmonds and the Union County Quorum Court must approve plans for the demolition and temporary relocation of the courthouse. But “that will not be a problem,” Edmonds said. “There is no way we would stand in the way of something this massive.”
Some aren’t as happy about Murphy’s plans for downtown. Prominent businessman and El Dorado City Council candidate Richard Mason said it’s an “outrage to rid the city of such a historical structure.”
Richard and his wife, Vertis, own many historic buildings in downtown El Dorado, including the Rialto Theater. Both attended Murphy’s press conference on Wednesday.
After Deming spoke, Vertis Mason approached the CEO and told him that he “should be ashamed of himself” for planning to locate the building in the center of downtown.
“Why can’t you build it on Peach Street at your current headquarters?” Mason quipped.
Deming replied, “You’re just jealous because our building will look better than anything else downtown, and because you won’t own it.”
The Masons said they may counter Deming’s construction plan with one of their own, although they did not cite specifics.
“Sure, we have our plans, and we will have our own announcement very soon,” Vertis Mason said. “Expect something really big.”
Demolition of the courthouse is scheduled to begin at the end of July, Deming said. All offices will be temporarily relocated to the Union County Sheriff’s Office. Murphy has purchased 20 portable trailers from FEMA, which are currently en route to Union County, to be used as office space there. Construction on Boomtown Tower will begin in mid-August.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
HAHAHAHA Not having read the post before this one yet, I was reading this in shock… Good one…
April 30th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
This should make everone’s week. Absolutely the funniest thing I’ve read lately. I bet it made the Mason’s week also. hehehe
May 1st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Bigger is better as we say in the South, Yahoo!
May 1st, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Are you guys aware that this article ranks on the first page of google for the search “Murphy Oil headquarters”.
lol
May 1st, 2008 at 6:47 pm
And I was looking forward to the OCEAN FRONT VIEW…
May 1st, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I think its a great thing that the Murphy family is doing for ElDorado, AR. The question I have is, ” Why will the train go to Dallas, Its a shorter distance to Little Rock Ar. & that would keep that revenue in Arkansas. Why would you by pass an airport in our Capitol city. ? I grew up in ElDorado, & have family there. I think it is wonderful for ElDorado. !
May 1st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
This is just too good to be true……a water front downtown….wow how will they do that! I sure hope Aunt Dot Dot finds somewhere to put all the people who work in the tax acces. office. Hot FIMA trailors won’t work in the south, didn’t they find that out with Katrina! lol
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:10 am
that is great!
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Too bad it ISN’T true. El Dorado is so behind it isn’t funny. Whoever planned the layout for this city wasn’t looking ahead. We will never have any major commerce because of the inability to widen the road. If we could 4 lane downtown we would actually have the room for the traffice that successful commerce would bring in. This town is a backwater joke.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I’m glad I moved. It will block the view from my old place. I’ll still see it from my present back deck. I guess every one else in the county will too. It will never get approval. Can the new school be in it too?
May 5th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Well, that explains all the rumors Iv`e been hearing that the defense department is planing to build a 20 billion dollar submarine pen at three creeks. LOL!