Regional Office Doubles With Early Renewal, Seven-Year Pact

OCE North America Inc. will shift the Southwest regional office to the 12th floor of the central tower at 5215 N. O'Connor Blvd. in Las Colinas, a rebounding submarket with one of the highest corporate tenant bases outside CBD bounds. OCE North America, nearing the end of its first lease, will backfill space emptied about three months ago.

"They had a chance to go to the market and look at their options in the Urban Center," says Mark Dickenson, senior vice president for the Atlanta-based Cousins Properties Inc. He tells GlobeSt.com that the old lease was ripped up and replaced with the seven-year contract because the Chicago-based OCE North America needed an image-setting location for its clients. The Grubb & Ellis Co. Dallas team of Jim Lob, senior vice president, and Michelle Stanley, associate, represented the tenant.

Dickenson credits a near $3-million renovation, which wrapped up in the past month, with pushing occupancy from 86% to 90% this year despite the ongoing construction in the 1.4-million-sf, three tower office complex owned by TIAA Realty Inc. of New York City. "That's one of the reasons why we're keeping a tenant like OCE," he stresses. "In a market that has a 35% vacancy, that says a lot for the project." The office space's quoted rent in $21.50 per sf to $23.50 per sf plus electric.

OCE North America, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-headquartered OCE NV, has more than 60 offices in the US and more than 2,500 employees. Its team has received more than 1,000 patents in technologies related to reprographics and engineering environments. The firm's core business is sales and leasing of copiers, printers and scanners.