Transcom will light the 16th floor of the 19-story CommerceBuilding at 307 W. 7th St. in February. The historic structure andits 16-story sister, the Oil & Gas Building at 309 W. 7th St.,were bought in October for $26.7 million by RYLB FW Properties, aNew York City-based investment group making its first purchase inTexas in an off-market transaction.

"We evaluated five or six buildings that could accommodate theirneeds," Bill Dowd, senior vice president of CresaPartners inDallas, tells GlobeSt.com. "But, they really liked the historic andunique qualities of the building." The class B Commerce Building isa 1930 mix of Art Deco and Gothic architecture, designed by thelate Wyatt C. Hedrick for the Fair department store. The adjacentOil & Gas Building delivered in 1954, nine years before theFair closed its doors.

Dowd says Transcom's executive team looked at office buildingsin Las Colinas, the Mid-Cities and Fort Worth CBD. "Eventually,they decided that Downtown Fort Worth represented the culture oftheir company," he says. Transcom is an eight-year-old VoIPwholesaler with facilities in New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles inaddition to Dallas/Fort Worth. For the past five years, theheadquarters team has been subleasing space from EDS at 1925 W.John Carpenter Fwy. Dowd says the sublease term will expire in syncwith the move to Fort Worth.