Jewelry Maker Buys 18-Acre Empty Campus in Telecom Corridor

Prime Art and Jewel Inc., based in Dallas, was one of three users up against 11 investment groups eyeing the 224,043-sf Waterview Plaza at 18325 Waterview Pkwy, assessed at close to $6.4 million by Dallas County. "The key with these types of facilities is you are going to maximize the value with a user-buyer rather than an investor-buyer," says Jack Eimer, president of the central region for Houston-headquartered Transwestern Commercial Services.

TCS' investment sale team of Steve Simon and Jeff Y. Smith spun the sale full circle in 100 days for Lennar Partners in a no minimum-ask for the empty class B campus. CompUSA and Kodak vacated the property in 2003.

"From Day 1, Lennar had a three year-hold strategy," Simon says about the piecemeal sale of an office portfolio taken back three years ago from the Dallas-based Prescott Realty Group. TCS has just picked up a second contract to sell another chunk of the portfolio--the 194,000-sf. 53%-leased Forest Green Office Park at 11880-11910 Greenville Ave. Lennar's hung a $10.25-million tag on the holding, one of three left in the package.

Waterview Plaza, built in the mid-1980s for the former Sun Oil Corp., contains three office buildings--89,374 sf, 54,095 sf and 37,093 sf--plus a 28,705-sf call center and 14,767-sf warehouse. Prime Art, planning to fill 135,000 sf, will retool the call center for light-assembly use and ready the three-story building's basement for shipping and receiving before the June move-in. Simon says the new owner has yet to decide if it's going to mothball the 89,374-sf, four-story office building or look for a tenant. Meanwhile, he says the company will keep a pair of buildings that it owns at 2930 N. Stemmons Freeway and 9121 King Arthur Dr. in Dallas.

Prime Art and Jewel, represented by Greg Chen of Novus Real Estate Co. in Richardson, produces semi-precious jewelry or "bridge" lines as they're known in the industry because the pieces fill the gap between costume and luxury lines. The firm, which supplies names like Dillard's and Macy's, also has operations in New York City, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Toronto.

As predicted at the year's start, the number of listings is on the rise in Dallas/Fort Worth. "Anybody selling now is trying to take advantage of an extremely aggressive market that we haven't seen in a long time in Dallas," Eimer says. "I don't think any of the prices can be considered bottom-feeding...even pricing on empty buildings is aggressive."

The TCS team last week won a competition for another no minimum-ask office property listing. Aslan Investment Fund, led by Chicago-based Transwestern Investment Services, is hawking the 224,879-sf Concourse Office Park, a 54%-leased holding at 6310-90 LBJ Freeway, and Amberton Tower, a 253,981-sf building with a 78% occupancy at 4144 N. Central Expressway.