From Deseret News archives:
Huntsman headquarters to be donated
However, the company says that does not mean it is packing its bags for the Lone Star State.
The Salt Lake-based company, which has its administrative headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas, said in a proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Friday that it will donate its $10.6 million headquarters building, 500 Huntsman Way, to the family foundation by Nov. 30, 2009.
While the company "has been moving to Texas" for years as part of a gradual transition, Huntsman Corp. spokesman Don Olsen said Friday that Salt Lake City "remains a very important location for this company."
"This is not a signal that anybody is pulling up stakes and leaving Utah," Olsen said. "We have said from day one that The Woodlands is our administrative headquarters. Our world headquarters, as we have said in so many places and so many times, is in Salt Lake City, and will remain in Salt Lake City."
The company's chairman, Jon Huntsman Sr., is in Salt Lake City, Olsen said, as are its chief financial officer, chief legal counsel, treasurer and key support staff. None of the key personnel located in Salt Lake City have immediate plans to move to Texas, he said.
Huntsman employs 60 to 70 people in Salt Lake City and about 600 in Texas. The company leases office space in Texas and owns a 200,000-square-foot technical center there that opened in October, Olsen said.
According to the SEC filing, Huntsman Corp. will retain the right to lease space in the Salt Lake headquarters facility after it is donated to the foundation. And that, Olsen said, fits into Jon Huntsman Sr.'s goal to focus more time — and money — on charitable works.
Huntsman is "a major shareholder in the company," Olsen said. "But the time will come, as he has said, when he will monetize his holdings and put money into the foundation. . . . This is the same type of issue.
"Nothing has changed from what we said about four years ago" in a similar proxy statement filed with the SEC, Olsen said. "What it outlines is a long-term view — that if the foundation should take the building at some time, the company has the right to lease space back. And that goes to the benefit of the foundation, which is (Jon Huntsman Sr.'s) driving force. He takes the building, and the company leases space back, which inures to the benefit of the foundation."
Olsen's reassurances had Utah's business community sighing with relief Friday.
