Brokers Deal 23,000-SF Double Office Play for Dallas CBD

An Austin law firm that opened and then closed a Dallas office in Bank One Center at 1717 Main St. is filling its 10,190-sf spot with another law firm, Roberts & Smaby, which has been a sublease tenant in the building for seven years. With the rates as they are and business booming, they started looking around last summer and then decided they liked the Bank One address, Sherri Chitwood, a vice president in Dallas for Chicago-based Transwestern Commercial Services, tells GlobeSt.com.

Finish-out is under way for Roberts & Smaby, which has gotten a deal that runs through Dec. 31, 2005. "We were very successful in getting them into a good deal," says Chitwood. She and vice president Todd Jones represented Roberts & Smaby. Daniel Rudd of Dallas-based Mohr Partners negotiated the pact for sublessor, Bickerstaff, Heath, Smiley, Pollan, Kever & McDaniel LLP.

Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.'s Bill McClung, senior director in Dallas, closed a mid-term signing for Crouch & Inabnett, a three-year tenant in Crescent's Fountain Place at 1445 Ross Ave. McClung's client renewed for 12,866 sf on the 23rd floor. Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities used in-house broker Kirby White to work out the fine details.

McClung tells GlobeSt.com that the deal came with a plan to rework the office space so the law firm could gain "more efficiency." The construction is under way and will wrap up in 60 days.

Deal terms, these days, are being kept under wraps as building owners try to get as much as they can in a tenants' market--and that's the case with the freshly signed office leases for Fountain Place and Bank One. As for the Fountain Place talks, all McClung's saying is "it was a fair deal for both parties.