New Opportunity Fund Gets SBC-Leased Campus

HDGM Holdings LLC, a new opportunity fund backed by Swiss and German capital, has bought a 174,625-sf, two-building campus at 2701-03 N. Central Expressway leased until Oct. 31, 2010 to SBC Communications. The local seller, BC Richardson, has owned the building since right before SBC's name went on the lease in 1999, according to Thomas E. Clarke, senior vice president of investment sales for Grubb & Ellis Co. in Dallas. In fact, Clarke sold the four-story office building and two-story manufacturing site to the BC Richardson after chipmaker Cyrix shuttered the site.

"We had a client who was looking for a deal like this," Clarke tells GlobeSt.com, "and we knew the seller might consider if we got his price." The investment group, which has a New York City office, took the deal full circle in a 30-day due diligence and 30-day close.

Clarke, who partners with Lindsay A. Allen, says SBC has two renewal options embedded into its lease. Renewal talks have yet to start because the telecommunications giant typically waits until leases have less than three years remaining on the term. "The projection is SBC will remain in the building due to the strategic alignment with its regional office," Clarke says, citing the tenant's 250,000-sf footprint right across the street. SBC houses a five-state fiber-optic division in the just-sold property.

"They got an aggressive cap rate," Allen says, "but mainly it was the opportunity to buy because of the risk involved. It's a gamble whether they'll renew, but we feel that they will."