Leading Office Developers Begin Work on $30M-Plus Class A Project

Brad Camp, chairman of the Dallas-based Creststone Development Services, and Terry Lowrey, president, are starting with a 40,000-sf, two-story building as the lead-in play to the 280,000-sf Stewart Creek Office Center, which is estimated to cost $30 million to $50 million when the work's all done. The well-known development team, who spent five years together on the JPMorgan project, are holding 1,500 sf of tollway frontage for their first project for the one-year-old Creststone flag.

The duo has quietly broken ground on a spec building at 5750 Genesis Court, setting up a project with freeway visibility, but saving the front-row seat in Frisco for their next construction wave: the 90,000-sf Stewart Creek Office Center I or 150,000-sf Stewart Creek Office Center III. "We'd love to save it for a build-to-suit," Lowrey says. Stewart Creek Office Center II will deliver in November.

Several office developers have projects working in Frisco, once thought to be too far to the north until Craig Hall staged a successful contrarian play with Hall Office Park. Lowrey and Camp say Stewart Creek Office Center stands out from the crowd because it's the only development now rising with a park setting and within a stone's throw of city hall, Frisco Town Square, the library, soccer fields and a hiking and biking trail system--all relatively new or still under-construction product.

The city's office market occupancy was 94%, but "that's a moving target," Camp says in light of all the construction. "The market is changing dramatically in Frisco." Most office space is value-add product, which is why they're starting with the smallest building on the drawing board, he explains to GlobeSt.com. The land's build-out will hinge "on where the market leads us and what the tenants want," he adds.

Lowrey says the tollway's expansion is the motivation to build. "This town will have one-third of the total length of the tollway from the downtown to Prosper," he explains about the 35-mile drive from city line to city line. "It's going to change the face of the whole area."

The class A space in Stewart Creek Office Center I is being marketed at $22 per sf. "There's not a lot of activity from a leasing standpoint," Camp says, "but as soon as people see some concrete I'm sure we'll be getting some inquiries." Yancey Camp, leasing director, is leading the campaign.

Omniplan Architects of Dallas designed the development. Susi Thompson with Thompson Landscape Architects in Dallas designed the grounds. Spring Valley Construction Co., also from Dallas, is the general contractor. Camp and Lowrey are building the project for Stewart Creek International Investors LP.