Edge is considered the anchor for Cushman & Wakefield'sDallas-Ft. Worth presence, says Arthur J. Mirante II, the firm'spresident and CEO. "He established the benchmark by which wemeasure our performance and our success in North Texas," saysMirante.

Edge is one of the most active tenant representation brokers inthe nation, with insight to Texas' current conditions that haveseveral cities strapped by a lack of space, particularly in theoffice sector. The problem, says Edge, is that lenders arerequiring significant pre-leasing of projects, a product of thereal estate crash of the 1980s. "The lenders today remember thatdisastrous period," Edge tells GlobeSt.com. "The lenders have goodmemories. I don't think any other state or metropolitan city isbeing held to this extreme." The pre-leasing clampdown had startedabout three years ago in Texas and has gotten considerably tighterin the past 18 months. "It's well beyond the norm because of thatgluttony," he says.

A 22-story, 418,000-sf project in Downtown Austin supportsEdge's contentions. Edge, who is involved in the project, says thebuilding--the first class-A undertaking since the mid-1980s--had tobe 50% pre-leased before any funding surfaced. Before it was saidand done, the building had been "95% leased at record rental ratesand still they couldn't get financing because Austin had a historyof overbuilding," he says of the Clark, Thomas & Winters PC lawfirm's project that is slated for a 2002 completion.