Trizec's Class A Triple Fills 22,621 SF in Dallas CBD

The deal-making closes off any available space on the 48th floor as two firms expand and backfill a hole emptied just three months ago by Prudential Security. "There wasn't much downtime at all," Bill Brokaw, Trizec's in-house leasing director for Ren Tower, tells GlobeSt.com.

A tenant for 25 years at 1201 Elm St., the firm of Touchstone, Bernays, Johnston, Beall, Smith & Stollenwerck added 5,147 sf to take the total to 40,731 sf and earn the title as the building's fourth largest law firm tenant. The balance of the floor's open space, 5,412 sf, went to Goins, Undrekofler, Crawford & Langdon, which expanded to 20,320 sf just 1.5 years after it put Renaissance Tower on its letterhead.

Paul Stockard and Sanders Thompson, both with NAI Stoneleigh Huff Brous McDowell's Dallas office and Gifford Touchtone of Gifford Touchstone & Co. represented Touchstone Bernays in a three-year, four-month expansion lease. Stockard also negotiated the six-year expansion pact for the Goins law firm. Both expansions are co-terminus with master leases.

The firm of Johnson & Sylvan re-upped 12,062 sf for six years on the 44th floor. Dan Paterson and Mike Johnston, both with Swearingen Realty Group in Dallas, represented the law firm, a tenant since 1989.

Brokaw says Johnson & Sylvan "scoped the market" before signing a deal that, like the others, were closed at market rates. The high-rise's quoted rate is $17 per sf to $18 per sf plus electric.

But for Touchstone Bernays, it wasn't looking to move from its 47th and 48th floor offices. "Touchstone Bernays has built its practice upon long-term relationships with our clients. In the same way, we have enjoyed our long-term relationship with Renaissance Tower and Trizec Properties Inc., having been one of the first firms to occupy the building in 1976," Sid Davis, a partner with Touchstone, Bernays, Johnston, Beall, Smith & Stollenwerck, said in a press release.

Thom Ridnour, regional vice president in Dallas for the Chicago-based Trizec, says the closed deals "exemplify the continuing appeal of downtown Dallas as the ideal location for the city's most prestigious law firms." Renaissance Tower's 1.7 million sf is 83% occupied, of which 35% is filled by law firms, according to Brokaw.