Harwood Center, St. Paul Place Get Changes

Scott McGarity, the firm's vice president of marketing, tells GlobeSt.com that 30,000 sf of deals are being courted for the 273,000-sf St. Paul Place at 750 N. St. Paul St. and 25,000 sf for the 722,000-sf Harwood Center at 1999 Bryan St. McGarity says the New York City owner made a quiet change in the guard about a month ago, allowing him and Mark Reeder, vice president of operations, to start working the market before making the switch widely known. "We've gotten our arms around it and now we're really trying to create an awareness of the two projects and their strengths," McGarity says of the downtown Dallas properties.

Part of the "strengths" lies in 13,000-sf floor plates at St. Paul, which has 40,000 sf that could be assembled into a contiguous block in a 22-story building with a 51% occupancy and a quoted rate of $15 per sf. At the 74%-leased Harwood Center, a 50,000-sf contiguous block exists in its 36 stories, with 26,000-sf floor plates and a quoted rent of $16 per sf.

The good news for the new team is the lease roll is minimal for the next two or three years, according to McGarity. Omnicom, the Firemen's Fund and General Services Administration are the lead tenants at Harwood while the Canadian Consulate and Capital Institutional Services are the top space-takers at St. Paul. And, he says, the realistic goal for this year, with each building holding four empty floors, is to fill "two or three" at St. Paul and "one or two" at Harwood Center.

The Taylor & Mathis team next week will select a design firm for lobby spruce-ups in both buildings. "They both have good bones. They just need small and prudent touches to enhance them," McGarity says.