Dealmaking Locks Down 57,911 SF for Signature Place

Bill Cawley, chairman and CEO of the firm, tells GlobeSt.com that his firm's headquarters move will be done by May 5, setting up the team in a 23,619-sf, eighth-floor office of the 11-story tower at 14785 Preston Rd. Cawley Wilcox Cos. will relocate its three groups--GVA Cawley, Wilcox Realty Group and Wilcox Development Services--from Stanford Corporate Center at 14001 N. Dallas Parkway.

Cawley inked a 10-year lease for its owned asset, a two-tower complex with 437,363 sf that had 110,000 sf of vacant space at the 2004 close when he and CRT Properties Inc. of Boca Raton, FL bought it. This year began with management and leasing reins passing to Wilcox Realty Group, which has the signature complex up to 78% occupancy with the new deals and another 80,000 sf in the pipeline.

In June 2006, Summitt Alliance Financial and affiliate Benefit Harbor will take over 21,530 sf and 7,661 sf, respectively. Both firms signed 10-year leases.

Summitt, now in a Park West office along LBJ Freeway, signed for a full floor in the 252,883-sf Signature Place II while its affiliate, now in the Galleria, took space in the 184,480-sf, eight-story neighbor at 14755 Preston Rd. along with expansion rights. "We expect them to double in size in 18 months," says Cawley, the tenants' rep. John Conger, president of Wilcox Realty Group, represented the owner for the double signing plus the Cawley relo.

The Austin-based Lumbermen's Investment Corp. leased 5,101 sf in a seven-year pact for the larger tower. The group will move in within 90 days from 5495 Belt Line Rd. John Gardner with the locally based Ian Russell Co. was the tenant's representative while Greg Hoffman and Mike Pierre with Wilcox represented the building owner.

Cawley says the building was bought with a goal to close 150,000 sf in three years. Just in the first quarter, dealmaking is pushing 80,000 sf that's either been closed or is close to it, he says. "It's a combination of an improving market and being a creative building owner," he says. The rate that opens talks is $18 per sf plus electric.

Just recently, the complex was power-washed for the first time since it delivered in the early 1980s. Coming up will be a lobby renovation and exterior lighting upgrades. Cawley plans to get the work under way by midsummer. "We need to office in it, get to know it and then make those decisions," he says about the extent of the renovation.