GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Duke Sets Up Office Group With $100M Plan

After a six-month search, Duke's Jeff Turner, senior vice president in Dallas, has filled the lead role with Blair Oden, who starts April 1 as vice president of office leasing. Oden has spent five years as a senior vice president in the Dallas office for Houston-based Transwestern Commercial Services Inc.

Turner's foray into office development starts with 70 acres along Warren Parkway in Frisco. He says it could take up to seven years to build out the land, which he started to assemble late last year with 57 acres and added 13 more just two weeks ago. He tells GlobeSt.com that construction costs will run $100 per sf to $115 per sf.

"It's not your grandmother's traditional value-add," Turner says. "It's upgraded value office space." As for the rate, all he'll promise is it will be competitive with other office space in the far north submarket. Frisco Bridges I, set to deliver in December, is 156,000 sf in a three-story design by Corgan & Associates of Dallas. But, it's merely the beginning.

"This really is the genesis of our building an office group in Dallas," Turner says. The park plan is intended to leverage all services from the Dallas team, modeling the office group's rollout after the industrial division's track record that has eight million sf at practically 100% occupancy. Duke Construction Co. will be the general contractor.

With the Frisco land ready to develop, Turner already is scouting around for more acreage primed for office development--not just in Frisco, but other key suburban pockets in the metroplex. "Raw land to us is a necessity," he stresses. "The quicker we have success in Frisco, the quicker we will build more."

Jack Eimer, president of Transwestern's central region, says he's been interviewing senior-level replacements for Oden's position. A decision could come within weeks. "This is an incredible opportunity for Blair and we wish him the very, very best," Eimer stresses. "We're not just losing one of the finest professionals around the agency leasing business in Dallas/Fort Worth, but a very close friend of the firm's."