AP Business Writer

HOUSTON (AP) - Bankrupt Enron Corp. is looking for slimmed-down digs as the company considers whether to liquidate or try to emerge from Chapter 11.

Under pressure from creditors to manage costs, the company needs much less than the 26 floors now sparingly occupied by its remaining 1,700 workers in its 50-story rented downtown Houston headquarters.

Enron's lease for the headquarters building runs out March 31, prompting the company to seek proposals from eight other downtown office towers with space to fill, said spokesman Eric Thode.

If Enron decides to accept bids received on its 12 most valuable assets, sell them off and spread the proceeds among creditors, the company will still need space beyond March 31 to get the deals done, Thode said.

"It's still going to take a significant amount of time to move through the process," he said Thursday.

But if the company deems the bids too small and creditors prefer equity in a reorganized company comprised of those assets, Enron could emerge from bankruptcy with a new name -- and a need for less space.

Enron put those assets -- including its Portland General Electric utility in Oregon and its full or part ownership in three pipelines -- on the market last August. The company is reviewing final bids received late last year.

Enron is entering a commercial real estate market left "very soft" from fallout of its swift collapse in December 2001, said Sanford Criner of the Trione & Gordon realty firm in Houston, which is helping Enron in its search.

He said the first round of new construction of downtown office space in 15 years in Houston collided with merchant energy businesses that halted growth, shrunk or shut down in response to a dried-up market. Vacancy rates for top downtown office space rose to 12.1 percent in 2002 from 3.3 percent in 2001.

"They've been the drivers of office space absorption over the last several years and they're having a rough patch," Criner said. "They are not expanding to take that space."

Enron once owned or occupied 3 million square feet of space for 7,500 workers in downtown Houston. The company is seeking just 300,000 square feet.

The current headquarters building alone has 1.25 million square feet, including an in-house gym, cafeteria and an onsite Starbucks coffee kiosk.

Last year Enron sold its adjacent 1.2 million-square-foot, 40-story glass tower for $102 million. Intended to showcase Enron's once-heralded trading operation, that tower cost $240 million to build.

Other addresses Enron is considering include the skyscraper that houses one-time merger partner Dynegy Inc., which abandoned a plan to buy Enron days before the former energy giant went bankrupt in December 2001.

Another building on the list is Pennzoil Place, which once housed the Houston offices of former Enron auditing firm Arthur Andersen LLP. Those offices and many others across the country closed last year after Andersen was convicted of obstruction of justice for trying to thwart government investigations of Enron finances by shredding and doctoring Enron-related audit documents.