Gulf project sets sail

The progress being made at the Gulf Oil Headquarters Building was hard to envision after a November 2001 fire charred the front third of the 1939 Spanish-style structure.

"It looked pretty bleak," Odessa City Manager Richard Morton said. "I was actually in the building afterward, and it was pretty burnt out inside."

Since then, the building has been sold a couple of times, vandalized and ordered demolished by the City Council.

But now work has started to try to restore the facility to its original state. The hole in its tile roof is being repaired, and the burned areas are being cleaned.

The work, which started about a month ago, is part of a multimillion-dollar restoration by Mike Killion of Kingwood, an Odessa native.

Killion bought the 28,000-square-foot building from Dr. David Weseloh. Complications with the title from previous owners forced Weseloh to buy the clear title to his own building at a sidewalk sale a few months ago at the Ector County Courthouse for $20,000.

Afterward, Killion paid Weseloh a price they agreed to before the sidewalk sale, which he declined to disclose.

"I paid him what I'd told him I'd pay," Killion said.

Now Killion is looking into a number of possibilities for the structure at 909 W. Second St., most of them related to its proximity to Medical Center Hospital.

Everything from a day surgery center to a place for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center medical students to live once they come to Odessa next year has been discussed, he said.

But Killion is taking his time with the plans. He said it would take at least a year to complete the project.

"We still haven't come up with any things we want to do," Killion said. "We don't want to rebuild the whole thing and then somebody say, ‘I need bigger rooms.' "

Killion's been working with architect Larry Johnson to turn a large number of small rooms into fewer large rooms.

Johnson's been studying the building.

"We need to make sure we know what walls we can take out, so we can have a larger space," Johnson said.

The building, which has a basement and two aboveground floors, has potential. Johnson said it's great to have somebody willing to reinvest in Odessa.

"It's just top-of-the-line quality," he said. "You just hate to see something like that go by the wayside."

While Killion's confident he'll find a use for the building, he says he's in it for the long haul.

"I don't really care if I do or not," he said. "It's mine. If I have to, I'll put my corporate offices there."

Killion plans to put in a new parking lot and a fence that matches the building. He even wants to place an old Gulf sign above the entrance.

"I just love doing stuff like this," he said. "I've never went into anything that wasn't successful."

And, with a new central fire station being built nearby and the possibility of a noise ordinance limiting train whistles, there's hope of a revitalization of the area.

"That's what we're trying to do," said Killion, who also owns the Waukesha Pierce Building across the street. "There's a lot of people in Odessa who want to do this."

And Killion said the nearby hospital offers firm footing for the area.

"Medical Center is the backbone of Odessa," he said. "That's one thing that's always going to be there."

Killion said Morton's been helpful in the process.

That city has waived building permits and provided trash roll-off containers. Morton said it's well worth helping in order to avoid a demolition fee that could reach $200,000.

Morton said he's confident Killion would do a good job with the project.

"He's put a lot of thought into it," he said. "I do believe he's got the financial resources to make it happen, and he's got people out there working hard."