Capstone Expands Dallas HQ

Capstone Underwriters Inc. will shift its headquarters from the 10th floor to the ninth to gain 1,995 sf, bumping its office footprint to 6,797 sf in the 12-story, class B office building at 4144 Central Expressway. "We're starting to see tenants grow and that, to me, is the real message," says Blair Oden of Transwestern Commercial Services Inc.'s Dallas office.

Capstone moves into the new office Jan. 1. The three-year tenant will share a floor with Tecon Water Co., which moved into 10,000 sf in early September. Both tenants are backfilling a 21,969-sf floor or about one-third of the space vacated by CTX Mortgage Co. in December 2002 in its exit from Amberton Tower.

Oden says Capstone's shuffle is dual pronged: delivering newer built-out space to rent on the 10th and upgrading an older office in need of a facelift on the ninth floor.

Opening doors this week on a 10,000-sf office was Southwest Anesthesiology. Meanwhile, Core Group Advertising shifted from the fifth floor to the eighth and signed a new pact for 6,900 sf. "We're making progress," Oden tells GlobeSt.com of negotiations that will have filled 45,000 sf by year's end in a 254,000-sf building that's now 70% occupied.

The building's quoted rate is $16 per sf, full service. "We're being very creative," Oden says. "We prefer stair-stepped deals...but we're not married to any single type of structure. Our ownership is very flexible. It allows us to create an economic structure that's a win-win for everybody. We're an aggressive competitor on Central Expressway and will continue to be that until it's 85% to 90% occupied."

Besides Oden, TCS' Kim Butler is negotiating the deals for the Chicago-based building owner, Transwestern Investment Co. Brent Jackson of Swearingen Realty Group in Dallas was Capstone's broker.