Telecom Corridor Rallies 107,000-SF Lease

Mark Sommer, president of Beltway Commercial Real Estate, tells GlobeSt.com that the lease was signed in late December for the three-story office structure. The marketing push also has snagged Sony Pictures as a tenant for 10,576 sf. Mike Hueppeler of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. represented Sony Pictures, which will open its doors in two weeks. Avaya is poised to occupy its office space by Feb. 15.

Sommer tells GlobeSt.com that construction on a third building won't begin in the near term despite the active leasing of the second phase, which just delivered in November 2001. "We'll see what the market brings first," he says.

Beltway Commercial's 19-acre office park, destined to be four phases, is bordered by Greenville Avenue, Lookout Drive and Plano heart in the heart of the Telecom Corridor, the hardest hit office submarket in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. According to Grubb & Ellis Co.'s latest stats, the corridor has experienced an 11% surge in vacancy.

Avaya is a coup in today's market. The corporate plan calls for the relocation of about 100 employees from Atlanta, Indianapolis, Omaha and New Jersey. Another 150 jobs are to be created in the coming years. In a press release, Avaya said it selected the Telecom Corridor over other major cities "based largely on the breadth and depth of the corridor's skilled telecommunications workforce."

Some four months ago, Avaya shuttered a New Jersey call center and shifted many functions to existing Atlanta and Oklahoma City. That move fell within months of signing a long-term lease for 67,000 sf in Dublin, CA to take over quarters occupied by Quintus Corp., a bankrupt company acquired in mid-2001 by Avaya.

Avaya provides communications systems, software and professional services to businesses, government agencies and organizations. In September 2000, the company was spun off from Lucent Technologies.