RadioShack Reveals Campus Plan, Landmark Sell-Off

FT. WORTH-RadioShack Corp. takes front and center this week in two deals to dispose of Ft. Worth CBD properties and build a corporate campus on another Downtown site. Plans have yet to roll into the city development office for an undertaking that is three years down the road.

Yesterday, Dallas-based PNL Cos. and RadioShack announced the signing of a purchase option for the Charles D. Tandy Center, a Throckmorton Street landmark, and Ft. Worth Outlet Square Mall. Terms are confidential. Earlier this week, Tarrant County agreed to pay $34 million for the 300,000-sf Tandy Center Technology Square building at Taylor Street and adjacent parking garage. RadioShack will lease back the office space in the twin 20-story towers and technology center until the new facility is ready to occupy, a timeframe tentatively set for late 2004. According to a company press release, RadioShack will continue to own and operate a subway that connects the sites.

Bob Riley, Ft. Worth’s development director, tells GlobeSt.com that the corporate giant has yet to file any project plans with his department. According to a published account, the campus will boast one million sf.

The PNL announcement comes nine months after RadioShack first signed papers to buy the Ripley Arnold project for $20 million from the Ft. Worth Housing Authority. That deal closed in November and overrode a tenants’ uproar about being forced to relocate from their subsidized housing. The authority could not be reached for comment.

Leonard Roberts, RadioShack chairman and CEO, says the move hails “a new and exciting chapter in the history of RadioShack.” The corporation has used the Tandy Center for its headquarters for the past 25 years. The Tandy Center, which opened in 1978, was built on the site of a department store, once a former Tandy Corp. operation, and represented the first major project of the Downtown’s redevelopment. The towers were constructed in 1976 and 1978.

The company says the sales will be accretive to earnings. “We fully expect the sale of our current facilities to reduce operating expenses, improve earning and substantially enhance workplace efficiency,” Roberts says in his prepared statement.