Transcontinental Buys High-Profile 40-Acre Site

"We think it's the best site left in Irving, except for the Urban Center, without a doubt," says Garry Gibbons, vice president of Dallas-based Prime Income Asset Management Inc., Transcontinental's parent. The land is positioned in the Las Colinas Office Center, the only vacant hard corner at the Texas 114-161 intersection, which has class A office buildings at its other kissing points. Gibbons tells GlobeSt.com that a contract is in the final stretch to sell 3.5 acres of the southeast corner to a hotel developer for a 200-room, full-service Embassy Suites.

Gibbons says the resale plan will take about five years to fully execute. If fully built out to 35% coverage, the 30-acre office-zoned dirt could support 457,380 sf of class A space. The going rate for office land in the immediate area is $10 per sf to $15 per sf. Hotel land is commanding about $15 per sf and retail tracts are fetching $10 per sf to $12 per sf. The envisioned retail plan is a small shopping center with up to three restaurant pad sites.

Phil Baker, president of Magellan Commercial Realty Inc. in Irving, and his vice president Brandon Rutledge negotiated the land sale. "Other parties were looking to buy portions of it, but they wanted to buy the entire thing," Baker says. He's already fielding inquiries from prospective buyers for the high-profile site at a crossroads seeded by Nokia's 600,000-sf campus, NEC America's former 2225,000-sf HQ and the 386,1160-sf Las Colinas Corporate Center along Campus Circle Dr.

Prime Income moves into position as the largest landowner of undeveloped acreage in the northwest Dallas with the acquisition. The investment group owns 235 acres in Las Colinas, another 60 acres in Irving and roughly 1,000 acres at Mercer Crossing. "This just adds to our portfolio," Gibbons emphasizes about the firm's enviable grip on the submarket. The late John Carpenter, one of Texas' development legends, molded the 12,000-acre Las Colinas into an enclave for corporate America, transitioning typical Texas pastureland into a headquarters hub for Fortune 500 companies and others.