Andrews Kurth Beds Down 71,760 SF in Early CBD Renewal

The Houston-based law firm has 410 attorneys in eight offices, of which four are in Texas. The 102-year-old firm's been a tenant since 1997 in the 1.5-million-sf Bank One Center at 1717 Main St. in downtown Dallas.

"Under the existing lease, we didn't have the expansion capabilities that we needed," Greg Biggs, senior vice president and southwest region manager for Studley, tells GlobeSt.com. A search of all class A and class AA buildings was conducted in downtown and Uptown. "Other options were possible," he says. "At the end of the day, the firm didn't have to do anything. They could have waited this out until 2007." The deal goes into effect in March 2007.

Biggs declined to go into detail, but did say the law firm will "grow the count substantially" as a result of deal-making that enables expansion now rather than later. "Andrews Kurth has done an outstanding job of recruiting so expansion capabilities were critical to their future," adds Biggs, who represented the broker along with Charles Gordon of CB Richard Ellis Inc.'s Houston office. The firm occupies floors 36, 37 and 38 in the 60-story building.

Bank One Center is owned by Main Street Partners Funding LP, a 50-50 partnership between Chicago-based Trizec Properties Inc. and Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. of Fort Worth. Don Dowell, Trizec's leasing executive for Bank One Center, bargained on the JV's behalf. The high-rise has 242,626 sf vacant, with the quoted rent ranging from $20 per sf to $24 per sf plus electric.

"We have been pleased to see the growing volume of leasing activity in downtown Dallas so far in 2004," Thom Ridnour, Trizec's regional vice president, says in a press release. "Downtown offers many valuable advantages to office space users and it's good to see that blue-chip firms like Andrews Kurth continue to appreciate that."