Duke Starts $20M Spec Office for New Park

"The City of Allen understands it's an emerging market and it will have to be aggressive to lease this building," Jeff Turner, senior vice president for the Indianapolis-based Duke, tells GlobeSt.com. Duke has acquired 7.74 acres and secured the right to market, with options to buy more, the city's newest economic engine, Allen Central Park, a 38-acre western gateway to the city at the crossroads of Bethany Road and US Highway 75.

Turner says the five-story building, the first mid-rise in the city, will deliver in late summer 2007. Talks have been under way nearly a year with the city while the Duke team canvassed the brokerage community for input about the game plan. "We've had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from brokers saying there are not a lot of good options up there," he says. "The idea has been well received."

Local officials are hoping the flagship building is the first of four, maybe five, office structures for the land, whether it's multi-tenant spec space or build-to-suit plans. The site's interior has a three-acre carve-out for a park within a park to provide outdoor event space and a gathering point for tenants and residents alike in an emerging retail corridor with several million sf under construction or being planned by regional and national developers.

One Allen Center, designed by the Dallas team for BOKA Powell Architects, has 30,000-sf floor plates, dual feed electric power and fiber optic sonet ring. Duke Construction Co. is the general contractor.

City officials underwrote One Allen Center with breaks on land acquisition, structured parking, taxes and future tenant packages. "We can put a deal in place where we can offer true class A for a value-office price," Turner says. "By far, it will be the most aggressive pricing in the metroplex based on the incentives we got from Allen."

Turner says the tenant hunt has just begun. "You go out, meet prospects and look for the right deal," he says. "We've got a year to work on that."