Leading International Law Firm Opts for Full Floor in Bank One Center

Morgan, Lewis & Brokius, headquartered in Philadelphia, will light the 60-story building's 32nd floor Sept. 1. The 14-attorney office, with more lawyers en route, first marched into the Southwest last fall when it started to fill the majority of the privately operated executive center on the 34th floor of the 1717 Main St. high-rise.

"We were able to drive an aggressive deal with a great deal of flexibility to grow," the law firm's broker, Marti Nemer, senior vice president for Jones Lang LaSalle's Dallas office, tells GlobeSt.com. She says the initial search crisscrossed the metroplex, but quickly zeroed in on the CBD and a short list with two class A buildings. "It became clear that this one was the best fit," she says "It certainly was to the owners' advantage that they were already in the building."

Don Dowell, Bank One's leasing director for Chicago-based Trizec Properties Inc., says several factors were key to the decision to cut into the going rate of $20 per sf to $23 per sf plus electric. "This is a large national firm so the potential for them to grow is pretty good and it's good credit so you tend to be more aggressive," he says. "We were pretty aggressive."

Law firms account for 60% of the tenants in the 90%-leased, 1.5-million-sf Bank One Center, according to Dowell who's been working on the deal since last year for joint venture owners, Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. and Trizec. Morgan, Lewis & Brokius will light one of two floors vacated in January by the Hermes, Sargent & Bates law firm and gets a first right of refusal on the other one, which has a connected stairwell to its future office, Dowell says. "That was one of the endearing aspects of this is that we could offer them future growth," he says.

Nemer says Morgan Lewis & Brokius started the Dallas office with seven attorneys, jumped to 11 and then doubled during the negotiations. The firm, founded in 1873, has more than 1,200 attorneys in 19 offices worldwide.

The 32nd floor's overhaul begins next week. JR Thompson, a Dallas construction company, is the finish-out contractor.