GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Berkshire at Preston Center Up for Sale

DALLAS-An unidentified institutional investor is hawking one of two Texas properties as plans unfold to bring the 182,468-sf Berkshire at Preston Center in North Dallas to market, GlobeSt.com has learned.

“I think there will be tremendous interest in this asset,” predicts Barry Brown, a senior director with Dallas-based Holliday Fenoglio Fowler. The 16-story, class A office building is located at 5950 Berkshire Lane at the high-profile intersection of Northwest Highway and the Dallas North Tollway. “It’s at ground zero,” he tells GlobeSt.com.Dallas Central Appraisal District pegs the building’s 2001 market value at a little more than $29.3 million, listing SPP Real Estate Inc. of Greenwich, CT as the owner of record. Also tucked into the two-building Texas portfolio is the Lincoln Heights Shopping Center in San Antonio.

The Berkshire at Preston Center sits in one of the city’s most prized submarkets. There is 2.7 million sf of office inventory–and no room to develop any more. “It should be very well sought after,” Brown says. “Its location has strong barriers to entry.”

The premier structure, which has 623 parking spaces incorporated into the design, is constructed of Texas pink granite and smoked glass, boasting floor-to-ceiling glass and a granite-and-bronze lobby with an 18-foot ceiling.

was built in 1984 by Dallas-based Lincoln Properties Co., which sold it to Equitable Life on behalf of a pension fund client. Brown’s client bought the 93%-occupied, multi-tenant office building on 1.4 acres about 4 1/2 years ago.

In 1998, upgrades brought the replacement of a chiller system. Transwestern Commercial Services’ Dallas office holds the leasing pact for the structure, which carries a quoted rate of a base $25 per sf plus electric.