High Rise Reaches Benchmark With Seven-Year, 55,240-SF HQ Lease

IMaCS, a provider of contract management solutions for hospitals, took floors seven and eight, with the sixth reserved by a first right of refusal, Buddy Tompkins with GVA Cawley Realty Services in Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com. The deal takes occupancy to 50% in the three-year-old, 351,248-sf high rise at 14241 Dallas Parkway.

The signing is a benchmark for the leasing team. "We are now out of the issue of what's on the ground and can sell the views," Tompkins says. Not only does that automatically change the quoted rent, but a market improvement has pushed up the rate in recent months, he says. "Proposals we put out months ago are no longer good," he adds, citing a near $3-per-sf jump because demand is up and it's the only shell space along the Dallas North Tollway, at least for now. Quotes have climbed to $23.50 per sf to $24.50 per sf. "It really is this building's time," he stresses.

Tompkins says IMaCS' executive team was wrestling between renewing and expanding in Stone Tower at 13760 Noel Rd. or heading to JPMorgan International Plaza, where two of the three high rises are fully leased for their owner, the Ohio Teachers Retirement Fund. "It looked at one point like they were going to renew," he says, "but we kept going back. We were very aggressive for the quality of our building." Peery Wood and Conrad McEachern with Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. represented the tenant. With the deal inked, Metroplex General Contractors of Addison has started finish-out.

Tompkins says the upper bank has 140,000 sf of contiguous space on the market: 28,000-sf floor plates on floors nine through 13. However, he adds there are leases pending for the ninth floor. Because the tower delivered during the tough years, he says the strategy from the onset was to lease the lower bank and fill the higher-priced upper when the market recovered. "That's always a bit of a struggle," he explains, "but now we've broken out of the lower bank and are showing the upper bank."