BofA Renews 125,728-SF, Class A Lease in Las Colinas

Bank of America's team secured a stair-stepped lease with an allowance to spruce up the lead tenant offices on floors six through 10 in the 16-story, canal-fronting building in the Las Colinas Urban Center, Tom Cruikshank, vice president and leasing director in Dallas for Jones Lang LaSalle, tells GlobeSt.com. The deal spent six months at the bargaining table, but it wasn't under the same kind of pressure as one inked five days ago in the Dallas CBD. For previous story, click here.

"I think it was our deal to win or lose," Cruikshank says. Bank of America replaced a pact with less than a year left on its term, taking the same amount of space in the 486,754-sf complex, owned by New York City-based Colonnade Properties LLC.

Cruikshank says the long dry spell in Las Colinas appears to have ended. His leasing pipeline has another 140,000 sf under negotiation, some renewals and some new deals--all on track to be signed by year's end. The 352,162-sf Las Colinas Tower II at 225 E. John Carpenter Freeway is 82% leased and its 134,592-sf sister, Las Colinas Tower I at 201 E. John Carpenter Freeway is resting at 40% occupancy.

The Charlotte, NC-headquartered Bank of America's lease sends a signal to the rest of the Dallas/Fort Worth market about the recovery of the Las Colinas Urban Center. "It's the stabilization of another Urban Center tenant," Cruikshank stresses, "and that's important for Las Colinas in general and the Urban Center in particular." The submarket's 21.7-million-sf inventory has struggled to overcome losses from the past two years despite its reputation as being a favored corporate landing ground. At the third-quarter close, vacancy was 25.2%.

"After 2 1/2 years of not much happening in Las Colinas, we're pretty happy," Cruikshank says. Space in Colonnade's Urban Center high-rises is quoted at $18 per sf.

Cruikshank and Maschera Usrey, a Jones Lang LaSalle leasing associate, brokered the pact for Colonnade Properties. Bank of America's team, just as before, was made up of Phil Puckett, Brant Bernet, Chris Hermann and Joe Cicardo, all with Trammell Crow's corporate advisory services division.