Guard Changes on 2M SF in Dallas

The last 30 days has "been one of the more active periods in our history," Brett Bunnett, president of the 3.5-year-old Capstar, tells GlobeSt.com. The firm has picked up the management assignment for the 280,440-sf Churchill Tower in the Park Central submarket; leasing duties for the 293,787-sf Addison Circle in Addison and the 174,421-sf Kinwest Commons in Las Colinas; and leasing and management pacts for the 240,064-sf Granite Tower in the LBJ Freeway submarket, 127,226-sf Cigna Plaza in Las Colinas and 19111 Dallas Parkway, a 152,163-sf office building.

The deals rolled Capstar's portfolio to 8.5 million sf of Dallas office product and offset an 820,000-sf loss from a reassignment by Regis Property Management LLC to Jones Lang LaSalle. The reassignment came within days of Capstar restructuring the team and cutting loose a vice president of leasing, Dale Ray, overseer for Regis' 412,521-sf Centura Tower at 14185 Dallas Parkway and One, Two and Four Hickory Centre, 416,000 sf of class A product off Interstate 635.

"He (Dale Ray) became a free agent and we started talking. Then, as luck would have it, he was a free agent with a portfolio," says Malcolm Ross, senior vice president in Dallas for Jones Lang LaSalle, which now has a 7.3-million-sf portfolio around town. He says Regis' John Cook approached Ray about continuing to steer the class A quartet, emphasizing Jones Lang LaSalle's "strong global platform with a strong local presence" certainly helped sway the deal.

"It was a strong relationship that was bonded by working hard for the assets. At the end of the day, it is about servicing the client," says Ray, Jones Lang LaSalle's newest vice president and leasing director. "Pull me out of the equation. The assets are exciting, class A and brand-new quality."

Ray's already secured a handful of leases to practically fill a full floor in the newly delivered, 221,000-sf, eight-story Four Hickory Centre. The remaining buildings in the 950-acre Mercer Crossing stand at 80% leased while Centura Tower is 63% occupied, he says.

Dallas office building owners have been changing the guard on a regular basis throughout the down cycle. Regis, like many others, exercised a 30-day option to cancel on the usual one-year contract.

"Investors are taking a closer look at their service partners," Bunnett stresses, "and they desire to have the best people on their assets. Owners in a market like this will make a decision to make a change. To keep 99 assignments, we might lose one, but we expect to be on the winning team more often.