Big commercial deals
12:00 AM CDT on Friday, August 22, 2008
June 3
is introduced
Trammell Crow Co.'s High Street Residential has teamed up with USAA Real Estate Co. to build a mixed-use development in downtown Garland.
The 5th Street Crossing at Garland Station project is next door to a DART light rail stop.
The project will include 189 residential units, ground-floor retail and a 400-stall parking garage.
It will open next August.
June 12
Heath insurance giant Cigna Corp. is taking more than 204,000 square feet of office space in a new Plano building.
CMC Commercial Realty Group is building the office complex at the northeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and Plano Parkway, just north of State Highway 190.
When the building opens next year, Cigna will consolidate operations now located in Irving, Carrollton and Dallas.
June 17
Staubach Co. seals a deal to sell to Chicago-based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle in a transaction that could ultimately total $725 million.
Staubach – the 31-year-old Addison-based firm – has been one of the best-known players in the nationwide commercial real estate services market.
Founder Roger Staubach lands a board seat at Jones Lang LaSalle as part of the transaction and says he plans to stay active with the company.
June 24
Dallas-area office demand takes a dive in the first half of 2008, with just over 300,000 square feet of net leasing.
That's a 50 percent drop from the same period last year, according to reports from Cushman & Wakefield of Texas.
A slower U.S. economy plus worries about oil prices and the credit crunch get the blame for slower office leasing.
Even so, total vacancies inch below 20 percent for the first time in years.
June 28
Addison's three-tower Colonnade office complex has a new owner.
CB Richard Ellis Investors purchased the 25-year-old project on the Dallas North Tollway from a partnership between J.P. Morgan and Equity Office.
The buildings contain more than 1 million square feet and were expected to sell for more than $170 million.
AT&T's corporate move from San Antonio won't fill a lot of office space. But the relocation of the telecommunications giant is a big feather in downtown Dallas' cap.
AT&T plans to locate about 700 of its home office workers in the company's office complex on Akard Street.
July 1
Developer JPI kicked off construction on the first apartment community in downtown Dallas' Arts District.
The 228-unit building is going up on Ross Avenue at Routh Street, next door to the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.
And JPI has land for even more apartments just across the street.
Developer Hillwood has scored a $300 million deal with accounting giant Deloitte LLP to build a conference and learning center in Westlake.
Work will begin next year on the 750,000 square-foot campus, which is located in Hillwood's Circle T Ranch complex.
Deloitte plans to locate several hundred workers at the learning center, which will be used by as many as 40,000 visitors annually.
July 2
Dallas-based Koll Development Co. has teamed up with two outside investors to fund a nationwide expansion program.
Investors E2M Partners and Sammons Enterprises will help Koll Development expand its operations in Chicago, Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Bay area and Houston.
Koll Development was already building more than 4 million square feet of commercial projects before the deal was announced.
July 16
Chicago tops Dallas in the bid for brewer MillerCoors' corporate headquarters.
State and local governments ponied up almost $20 million in incentives to get MillerCoors to locate its top office in the Windy City.
It's a second big victory for Chicago over Dallas. In 2001, Boeing spurned Big D in favor of a Chicago HQ.
July 30
Trammell Crow Co. has joined the Frisco Square development in Collin County as part of a plan to add residential units to the mixed-use project.
Crow Co. and Frisco Square developer Fairways Equities plan to build three phases of apartments in the project on the Dallas North Tollway.
The first 281 units will be ready by next summer.
Frisco Square was started in 2000 and already includes shops, office space, apartments and city government buildings.
Aug. 8
Tenet Healthcare joins the list of companies trading office space in the 'burbs for new digs downtown.
During the last year, more than three dozen tenants have added about 6,000 jobs in downtown and filled more than 1 million square feet.
Tenet will take about 165,000 square feet of office space for its 500 workers in the Fountain Place tower on Ross Avenue.