The larger lease, 160,000 sf, was signed about a month ago for 8616 Freeport Parkway, home to Marconi Communications. A 58,000-sf sublease, with a Feb. 1, 2003 initiation, has just been inked and backfills the balance of 8710 Freeport Parkway, once occupied by FairPoint Communications of Charlotte, NC. The bottom line is the deals provide the consolidation space that CSC was seeking for its numerous DFW offices.

CSC did not comment by press time as to the number of locations that will be consolidated as a result of the leases. The back-to-back signings, though, have brought out comments on the street, with brokers speculating that CSC is considering a play for abutting land to expand the Marconi building, now owned by Aetna Life Insurance Co. of Carlsbad, CA.

Bruce Dewberry and Jeremy Steenerson, both of USI Real Estate Services in Dallas, represented CSC in both transactions. Kevin S. McGovern, managing director for Insignia/ESG in Dallas, brokered the 57-month sublease for the FairPoint space. CSC will share 8710 Freeport Park with Northrop Grumman, which leased 20,000 sf for five years just two months ago from Fairpoint.

McGovern tells GlobeSt.com that CSC's brokers came looking for the class A space because it abuts Marconi's building. "Proximity was very important," he says, adding that negotiations still took an aggressive turn despite the leverage that the Crow Holdings building brought to the deal. CSC, through the double deals, is now one of the largest tenants in the Las Colinas/Freeport submarket, a headquarters hub for a number of leading corporations.

CSC's scuttled plans called for a 200,000-sf build-to-suit near the junction of MacArthur Boulevard and LBJ Freeway. "CSC found a diamond in the rough," McGovern said in a press release, "and it will help them with their consolidation." The sublease has been under negotiation since June.