A new office park headed to Frisco takes its design approach from something we all fell in love with during a global pandemic: being outside.
The 11-acre building site is near the northwest corner of the Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121, and while it backs up to 100 corporations in the area, it is being marketed as a “secluded suburban setting.”
Bob Buell, a principal with Fults Commercial Real Estate who is marketing the project, says several design elements have been incorporated into the project to help offset and buck the recent occupancy trends from COVID, most notably a lot of outdoor working space. For example, they will have jogging and walking trails along a heavily wooded creek, and an overlook above a small pond would be used for outdoor areas with pedestrian bridges, seating, and game courts.
The campus will also offer lower density buildings (25 percent site density on 120,000 square feet) and a low-rise, efficient design with seven single-story buildings and two two-story buildings with limited elevators. Dallas architect Corgan did the site plan for the project.
Cadillac Fairview obtains 50 Percent interest in KDC
For more than 30 years, Dallas-based KDC has focused on developing commercial office buildings and custom corporate homes. The firm has formed a joint venture with Cadillac Fairview and Compatriot Capital, closing on an $800 million fund. This marks new ground for KDC with an increased focus on mixed-use investment and development.
Provident Realty seals the deal for Plano distribution center development
Provident Realty has achieved one of the highest prices per square mile for an industrial asset in Dallas County, with the closing of Plano Commerce Park for $32.4 million. The commerce park, located at 2900 and 2920 E. Plano Parkway in Plano, is the first of its kind to use an online service to identify good deals for both parties. The service used is called Mogul, a real estate investment recommendation newsletter from “Millionacres”.
CBRE releases annual Scoring Tech Talent Report
CBRE distributed its annual Scoring Tech Talent Report this week, and the key stats are in:
- DFW ranks 13th among North American tech hubs.
- The region also is the sixth largest tech talent market in North America, beating Chicago, Boston, and Seattle.
- In 2019, DFW produced the ninth most tech graduates, adding about 6,672, a 71.5 percent over five years.
- DFW has the 12th lowest rent-to-wage ratio for apartments out of the top 50 tech talent markets, and the average annual apartment rent amounts to 14.2 percent of the average tech talent wage.
- Dallas’ strong business environment and affordable pricing have drawn in corporate relocations and talent.
Dallas-based Velocis enters industrial real estate market
The demand for industrial real estate, especially in Texas metro areas like Dallas-Fort Worth, is at an all-time high right now. Private equity real estate manager Velocis has joined the industrial real estate market, with two development closures this week. The sites will be developed into 850,000 square feet of Class A industrial space for South Dallas and GSW submarkets. Velocis partnered with Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corporation of Americas on the investments to make it happen, and in the future, Velocis plans on pursuing more investments with Sumitomo.
Q2 Office REPORTS
CBRE and Transwestern have both released their second-quarter office reports, showing that Dallas continues to take the lead with returning to offices at 50.1 percent capacity, an increase from Q1’s 39.7 percent, according to Transwestern’s report. Some other highlights are as follows:
- DFW’s unemployment rate was 5.3 percent in May 2021, 50 bps lower than last quarter, according to CBRE’s report.
- According to Transwestern’s report, leasing activity has seen approximately a 50 percent increase from the previous quarter, reaching 3.1 MSF as tenants are coming back into the market.
- DFW has gained 260,200 non-farm jobs since last May and has recovered roughly 81 percent of jobs lost from March to May 2020, according to CBRE’s report.
- Notable trades this quarter include 1-million-square-foot Burnett Plaza’s passing to Opal Holdings and 873,000-square-foot Campbell Center’s acquisition by Fenway Capital Advisors and Waterfall Asset Management.
- DFW had a 70 percent increase in net absorption from Q1 with (358,044) square feet of negative absorption, according to CBRE’s report.
