Regency Plaza Deals Push Occupancy to 85%

Keys turn Feb. 1 to the Moody Foundation and Feb. 15 to the Craig Berstein law firm. Already settled into its office at the 3710 Rawlins St. building is McCathern Mooty Buffington, a Dallas-based corporate defense law firm.

The prestigious Moody Foundation, now at Highland Park Place, will move into 1,400 sf in a five-year lease for the ninth floor. "It had the feel they like...intimate space overlooking Turtle Creek," Michael J. Haase, leasing director for Gaedeke Landers. He and tenant rep, Grant Laughlin of Office Finders in Dallas, brokered the five-year pact for the ninth-floor office.

Moving into space previously occupied by Centex Construction will be the Craig Berstein firm, a 15-attorney practice taking over 3,000 sf on the 13th floor of the 16-story building. Haase, who brokered the pact single-handedly, negotiated a seven-year lease for the firm, which is inbound from nearby Park Place.

McCathern Mooty Buffington, which moved in about three weeks ago, took 12,500 sf on the penthouse floor with an option to take the balance of the 17,000-sf floor plate. "The intent," Haase tells GlobeSt.com about the 10-year lease, "is to take it all."

McCathern Mooty Buffington, which has offices in Dallas and Austin, has a client roster that includes the Dallas Cowboys Football Club Ltd., Dallas Desperados Football Club Ltd., Texas Stadium Corp., Toll Brothers Inc. and Dal-Tile Corp.

Haase says 2003 was a struggle to secure tenants for the 50,000 sf vacated by Centex over an 18-month period. The area to be backfilled is now down to 10,000 sf after a yearend run that cornered 17,000 sf for the 165,779-sf office building, owned by Werner Gaedeke. The building's quoted rate is $19 per sf to $20 per sf, full service.