Word: enronizing
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...Leading the parade, ironically, is Enron, an old energy behemoth that has reinvented itself as a high-tech trading firm dealing in everything from natural gas to Internet bandwidth. In fact, its new 40-story headquarters, designed by Cesar Pelli, will be fronted by a seven-story "podium"--or shorter building--to house what Enron is calling the largest commodities-trading environment in the world...
...When the bigger 40-story structure is finished in December, Enron's will be the first new skyscraper in downtown Houston since 1987--to be followed by three more by 2003. Besides Enron, Calpine Corp., the nation's leading independent-power company, based in California, will move into a new 32-story high-rise. And Reliant Resources, the IPO spun off this month from its Houston parent to deal with Texas' new deregulated electricity market, has signed on for offices in a 36-story skyscraper...
...What's fueling the high-rise fever is simple: excess cash. Enron's first-quarter revenues were up 281%, while Calpine's revenues and net income were each up more than 400%--even with California's deadbeat utility PG&E owing the company more than $300 million...
...After a decade of contraction in the business, with companies having shut offices from New Orleans to Oklahoma, deregulation and new marketing strategies are sparking Houston's renaissance. "Enron is a leading example of the new energy industry. Ten years ago, there were no trading floors," points out Stephen Brown, senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. Both Calpine and Reliant will also have trading operations in their new offices...
...None of this matters to real Houston lovers, of course. They're just interested in bragging rights. After a bad decade, they're beginning to sound like the biggest and the best in Texas again. "Boomlet?" says Laura Schwartz, spokeswoman at Enron. "It's more than a mini-boom. It's a boom...