Willingness to Dicker Brings Hefty Tenant Rewards

DALLAS-Two office deals, totaling 45,406 sf, show just how much building owners will bend as the tenants’ broker cuts some hefty deals in the marketplace. One “plug-and-play” move also secures the furniture while the other pulls “north of $30 per sf” in tenant improvements.

Arlington-based Clearwire Technologies Inc. has packed up lock, stock and barrel and moved into 34,962 sf of sublease space belonging to Brampton, ONT-based Nortel Networks at 19111 N. Dallas Parkway. The 57-month lease required some tenant improvements, but not many since both firms have similar high-tech and office needs. The “plug-and-play” lease also had Nortel tossing in its office furniture, Lance McIlhenny, senior associate with Dallas-based Staubach Co., tells GlobeSt.com.

The Clearwire move came with a downsizing of its Arlington staff followed by a ramp up in North Dallas, he explained. Clearwire has taken about half of Nortel’s available sublease space in the three-story multi-tenant office building. “They’ve got big plans for wireless connects,” McIlhenny says. “The economics of this particular move were attractive.”

McIlhenny and Staubach associate Brad Selner represented Clearwire while Dale Clements of Dallas-based Fischer & Co. negotiated the deal for Nortel, which has its main office hub at 2221 Lakeside Blvd. in Richardson. Clearwire, a Goldman Sachs-funded company, relocated from 2000 E. Lamar in Arlington.

In another Staubach-negotiated office lease, a Dallas-based design planner for the multi-media industry will move in early December to 10,444 sf at 4801 Spring Valley Rd., a garden office complex situated right off the North Dallas Tollway. McIlhenny says the 84-month lease “was an aggressive deal for the market at the time.” He tells GlobeSt.com that the limited partnership building owner is kicking in “north of $30 per sf” for tenant improvements at the office-showroom spot that carries a going rate of $10.50 per sf.

Tenant Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams Inc. will be relocating from within the same submarket. The firm presently has a 9,000-sf office in a building at the intersection of Midway and Gamma roads. McIlhenny handled talks for the tenant while Greg Hoffman of Dallas’ Wilcox Realty Group represented the building owner. The tenant specializes in design and planning services for sound, video, communications, acoustics and theater clients.