Crescent Deals Trophy Win With Lease Transfer

FTI Consulting Inc. surveyed the scene both inside and outside the CBD and then started talking to its current building owner at 125 John Carpenter Freeway, where it occupies about 3,000 sf to 4,000 sf. Talks got underway about six months ago as Crescent took the field with a lease transfer offer for premier space at "AA competitive rates," Kirby White, the Fort Worth-based Crescent's leasing manager, tells GlobeSt.com. The roll took a lease with several years left to go and bundled it with a long-term contract for vacant space on the fourth floor of the 49-story Trammell Crow Center at 2001 Ross Ave.

"We did have to compete for it," White says. But, he adds, the transfer ability is a sweet spot that clearly gave the building owner, a two-time winner of a national customer service award, a distinct advantage over its competition.

The Annapolis, MD-based FTI Consulting, a longtime tenant in the John Carpenter Freeway building, was looking to lock in a location that would put its Southwest region business recovery services practice closer to its clients in the legal profession. The tenant is a multi-disciplined consulting firm with leading practices in the areas of turnaround, restructuring, bankruptcy, merger and acquisition and investigative and litigation-related services.

Finish-out will begin in September, with the keys turning sometime in the fourth quarter for about two-thirds of a floor in a trophy property that's now 90% occupied. Depending on the space, the quoted rate is $25 per sf to $28 per sf. White says the win clearly speaks to tenants' desires for class AA space and the synergies of the Dallas CBD, particularly in the immediate area of Trammell Crow Center where the Ray Nasher Sculpture Center is set to open and Belo Mansion, home to the Dallas Bar Association, is expanding.

Crescent owns the majority interest in the building, leased and managed by Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., through subsidiaries Crescent Real Estate Funding VIII LP and Crescent Commercial Realty Holdings LP. Matt Craft, a TCC principal., and Jon McNeil, TCC's senior vice president, represented Crescent. Chris Hermann, TCC's vice president of corporate advisory division, negotiated for the tenant.