The Indianapolis-based Duke bought the land from two investment groups with ties to Dallas and its homeport. The acreage has at least 1,500 feet of frontage along the Dallas North Tollway and sits at the Warren Parkway exit, right across the street from Hall Office Park.

Jeff Turner, Duke's senior vice president in Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com that a 100,000-sf to 200,000-sf spec office building could come on-line by year's end. Still to be decided is the product type: heavy class A or value office. Meanwhile, nine acres have been carved out for retail pad sites.

"This is a new step for us in Dallas," Turner says. "We bought it to focus on office, but I wouldn't preclude other opportunities that would be good for us and good for Frisco. You go into these things flexible and open-minded, but its location puts us ahead of the game." Several master plans are being worked up, but the build-out most likely will be "six or seven" buildings, possibly even a hotel if the right opportunity comes along.

"Frisco has found itself right in the path of prosperity," Turner says of the play. "There's this real phenomena taking place of reverse commutes."

Turner says he's been eyeing Frisco for three years and he's not done shopping. The adjacent parcels hit the radar screen 90 days; negotiations lasted a month. Randy Church of Wicker & Associates in Dallas brokered the land sales for all parties. Commercially zoned land is bringing $20 per sf or more while more rural acreage can be had for $7 per sf. All Turner will say about the price for the freeway-fronting acreage is "we feel we got a reasonably good deal for the land."

The 54-million-sf office inventory in far north Dallas had a 22% vacancy at the first quarter close. The stat is offset by the record pace of growth and a built-in resiliency that reflects "a healthy occupancy," Turner says. "We're buying this understanding we may have to be patient, but we're also buying this knowing we may be able to put it into service with one or two buildings due to the current office dynamics in Frisco."

Though Duke has office teams elsewhere in the US, that's not the case in Dallas. Turner says he's now weighing whether to outsource the office leasing or hire an office broker to build a group for the inroad.