The New York City-based Fortis hasn't had a brokerage team inplace since May2006 when it acquired the 36-story, class A Harwood Centerat 1999 Bryan St., according to J. Dale Ray, JLL's senior vicepresident and regional leasing director. The outsourcing decisioncomes just weeks before Fortis is faced with a 90,000-sf vacancy,of which 73,929 sf is direct space of leaseholder, Novato, CA-basedFireman's FundInsurance Co. and the balance tied to a sublease tenant.When the dust settles, Harwood Center's occupancy will be 80%.

"There's a need for a group to work on the vacancy that's comingand position it to land the next tenant," Ray says. The 25-year-oldHarwood Center underwent a renovation in recent years so that partof the heavy lifting is done. The marketing push will focus on a130,000-sf contiguous block--part due to Fireman's Fund loss andpart attrition. The hook is being set with a $20-per-sf-pluselectric rate.

Picking up the preleasing rights to the 18-story Galleria TowerIV is an expansion of the JLL-Fortis relationship, which got underway in February with the 1.4-million-sf assignment for Galleria I,II and III. The fourth tower is planned for a 1.5-acre tract at thecorner of Montfort Drive and Alpha Road, where the Galleria mall'sparking garage will act as a breezeway between the office space andthe upscale retail mix.