Barrett Burke Wilson Castle Daffin & Frappier's double dealcould be the largest office lease signed to date this year in theQuorum-Belt Line submarket, says Cameron Tapley, senior vicepresident of the tenant advisory group in Dallas for Grubb &Ellis Co. The 400-employee firm has occupied the entire 47,140-sfclass B building at 15000 Surveyor Blvd. for the past decade. Twoyears ago, it leased 10,839 sf across the street in the Forum at4004 Belt Line Rd. and has now added 18,700 sf of the class B spaceto keep up with its growth, the broker says.

Tapley says the law firm dropped a long-time search for abuilding to buy about four months ago. "They had a lot ofinfrastructure invested in the locations. To replicate that on thetechnology side was pretty expensive," he tells GlobeSt.com. "Andtiming was such that they were so busy they didn't need to be inthe middle of that kind of move."

Tapley says the acquisition hunt most likely will ramp up againin two years. He says the preferred strategy is to get a buildinglarge enough for the firm to fill 80,000 sf to 100,000 sf and havesome extra room for tenants. "But, for right now, we're sittingpat," he says.