Apr 29, 2015 2 min read

Rice Energy plans to reach a zenith in Southpointe next winter.

The oil and natural gas developer, already a tenant in the Cecil Township business park, has signed a long-term lease for its new headquarters in Zenith Ridge III. Rice will occupy the entire 150,000-square-foot structure, which is under construction.

The company plans to move in Feb. 1, 2016, said Jamie Rogers, Rice senior vice president and treasurer.

Burns & Scalo Real Estate Services Inc., the Green Tree-based developer of Zenith Ridge, said the signing occurred Tuesday.

When completed, Zenith Ridge will be a three-building, 486,000-square-foot office campus in Southpointe II. The initial two structures are fully operational, with Ansys Inc. occupying all of building I (186,000 square feet) and part of building II (150,000). EQT (30,000) and Regus (14,000) also are leasing square footage in II.

Rice’s new digs will triple the space the firm now has for its 335 employees, and eventually could accommodate 700, Rogers said. Zenith III will be the company’s third headquarters in Southpointe.

The current base, at 400 Woodcliff Drive, opened only last July. But even before construction had ended, Rogers said the company realized it already had outgrown that space and located a number of employees into a nearby structure, at 300 Woodcliff. Workers have been functioning out of the two venues – a combined 50,000 square feet – since.

Growth is a byword for Rice, a publicly traded company.”Business continued to grow strong,” Rogers said. “When we went public in January 2014, we had 145 employees. We now have 335.”

Burns & Scalo, in an email, said Rice’s “new building will have large open floor plans allowing for efficiency and flexibility.”

It will be a much bigger location for an increasingly bigger player in the Marcellus and Utica shale regions.