"This building does not need renovation. What it needs is for me to spend money on tenant improvements," Charles Aque, president of Aque Investment Group of Freehold, NJ, tells GlobeSt.com. "The prior owner did the renovation." DCL Investment is made up of partners in Northern New Jersey and Naples Florida, with Aque as their point man. As part of the takeover plan, Aque has hired Stream Realty Partners LP to lease the nine-story building at 16415 Addison Rd.

Addison Tower was 88% leased at sale time, with two deals in the pipeline. Ben Hautt, a senior associate for Dallas-based Stream, says the upcoming closings will bump occupancy to 90%. The rest of the plan calls for ready-to-go office suites to expedite deals. The class A space is quoted at $21 per sf to $23 per sf plus electric.

"Our goal is to reach 95% to 100% by one year from the purchase," Aque says, citing location, quality and leasing activity as the same generators for tenants as it was for the buyer. Cheryl Rogers, the investment group's property manager in Dallas, will oversee the 5.3-acre asset.

Hautt says the 25-tenant building's lead is US Specialty Insurance, which occupies the 12,987-sf ninth floor plus 936 sf on the eighth story and 14,337 sf on the seventh. Because the 22-year-old building abuts Addison Airport, the roster mainly is filled with aviation-related tenants.

Houston-based Urdang/Griffin LP put Addison Tower up for sale after investing three years into its repositioning. John Alvarado, managing director on Jones Lang LaSalle's Dallas team, says Addison Tower, situated about one block west of the Dallas North Tollway, was about 65% leased when the partnership bought it from Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. "Obviously, they were the beneficiaries of a lot of the dynamics that are going on along the tollway in terms of absorption and rental rates," he says.

Alvarado and JLL managing director Jack Crews had another buyer lined up, but the contract fell out. Rather than re-market, Alvarado says they went back to the pack of original bidders. "Charles and his group stepped up," he says. "He performed on the contract just as he stated he would."

Earlier this year, DCL Investment bought the 126,481-sf Copeland Tower at 1250 E. Copeland Rd. and 84,672-sf Stadium Place at 1200 E. Copeland Rd., both in Arlington, TX. Also this year, the group purchased the 172,000-sf Wells Fargo Building in Houston. Statewide, the firm owns about one million sf of class A and class B office buildings, including the San Antonio and Corpus Christi markets.