Chicago-based CMD Realty Investors banked the going rate for O'Connor Ridge, says Jack Crews, senior vice president for Trammell Crow Co.'s investment sales group in Dallas. He says Signature Asset Management, led by Ryan Phillips, was the highest of a dozen offers on the table for the 4545 Fuller Dr. property, the second CMD asset in Las Colinas to sell this year.
The 26-year-old O'Connor Ridge came to market without an asking price, just like CMD's 9101 LBJ Freeway. Signature's value-add play is a 70%-leased building on a seven-acre campus, strategically positioned outside the line of the Dallas County Utility and Reclamation District so that taxes are lower, as is the rent, giving the new owner significant leverage in the submarket.
"It's a good economic alternative to the high rises that are around it," Crews says. "It's a good building for Ryan. He'll do well with it." As for the lease roll, there's no exposure for a year in the 14-tenant roster, he says.
Phillips tells GlobeSt.com that he hired the Transwestern Commercial Services' team of Matt Hurlbut, senior vice president, and Melinda Alford, senior associate, to lease the building with an opening rate of $13.50 per sf. There's also a 7% leasing commission in play for three months as an added incentive to fill the empty space in a building neighboring headquarters locations for Verizon Southwest, Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Independent Bankers Bank, also an O'Connor Ridge lead tenant. Phillips nixed any large-scale renovation, but did say some office space will be readied for immediate move-ins and some left as-is for tenant finish-out. Transwestern also cornered the management assignment. Previously, CMD Realty managed it and Cousins Properties Inc.'s Texas team leased it.
"We like Las Colinas," Phillips says, citing the deal as strictly a one-off and an intended long-term hold. "It's been beaten down as a submarket due to the tech collapse. But as far as the fundamentals and infrastructure, it's still one of the best submarkets in Dallas."
O'Connor Ridge is Signature's second office building buy this year. Phillips says there's one more in the hopper. "And then, we're going to catch our breath," says the owner of the 15-year-old firm.
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