New Owner Awards Meadows, Alpha Pacts

Deborah Boles of the John Bowles Co. in Dallas will continue overseeing and leasing the 162,346-sf Meadows Building at 5646 Milton St. and the 62,492-sf Alpha Building at 5339 Alpha Rd. Boles joined the Canadian-based Kolter Corp. in 1997 and oversaw the buildings until a few months ago, leaving in the final round of acquisition talks with Libitzky Property Co. of California. She says Ken Bruder of the Bruder Co. in Dallas, negotiated the acquisition for his longtime partner, Moses Libitzky, but doesn't hold any partnership interests in the buildings as he does in their other Dallas-area properties. The buildings were the last of two in an eight-property sale that occupied most of 2003 for a Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP marketing team in Dallas.

Boles says there will be some cosmetic upgrades to help win and retain tenants for the 84.4%-leased Meadows Building and 27.7%-occupied Alpha Building. As before, single-floor users will be sought for the 15,000-sf floor plates at the Alpha and professional tenants courted for vacancies in the Meadows Building, which has 150 officeholders tied to a stable lease roll. On the average, Meadows' tenants occupy 400 sf to 800 sf in the historic building.

Boles tells GlobeSt.com that the Alpha Building is coming to market with a cut rate of $9 per sf to $10 per sf. "We think that will generate a lot of activity," she says. The Meadows Building will hold a quoted rate of $14.50 per sf to $16 per sf.

As for the winning of the contracts, Boles believes her "prior knowledge" of the buildings was an integral part of Libitzky's decision to award the contracts to John Bowles Co. instead of the two competitors that were courting the assignments. "At least, I'd like to think so," she says.