American Home Takes Entire Point West I

COPPELL, TX-American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. has taken the 182,700-square-foot Point West I for its headquarters through a long-term lease. The company will move into its new space in June 2009.

The building, situated on eight acres at 1525 S. Beltline Rd., is the first phase of Duke Realty Corp’s. $200 million, mixed-use, 185-acre Point West development. Point West I was finished last April, and remains in shell condition. The Indianapolis-based Duke, which developed the speculative building, is working on finish-outs. The quoted lease rate is $20.50 per square foot including electricity, with TIs quoted at $25 per sf.

“At the time we’d delivered the building, AHMS hadn’t yet come to market,” says Jeff Thornton, senior vice president for Duke’s Dallas operations. “They came to market about six months ago, and once they identified Point West I as the building they wanted, everything moved pretty quickly.” Bo Bond and Forshey Hoobler in Jones Lang LaSalle Corp.’s Dallas office represented the tenant. Ben Appleby with Duke Realty’s Dallas office and Dale Ray and Joel Pustmueller of Peloton Real Estate Partners in Dallas represented Duke.

In making the decision to relocate from its current digs at 4650 Regent Blvd., American Home Mortgage Servicing evaluated properties in Coppell, Lewisville and Irving. Thornton says the decision ultimately came down to location, visibility and room for growth.

“We have quite a bit of land immediately adjacent to the building,” Thonton tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re hopeful they do keep growing and we can talk to them about another building.” He declined to say whether that adjacent 33 acres was part of the lease package, however.

Thornton says the tenant is typical of those looking for space in Dallas’ northwest suburban markets. The deals in that submarket, he explains, have been on the large side. “If it’s not a full building they’re taking, then it’s half a building,” Thornton says. “If it’s not that, then it’s a full floor of a building.”

As a result, Duke opted to seek out a single, large tenant for Point West I, despite the economic slowdown. “We decided to stick to our plan of finding the right-size deal for the building,” he comments. “We just had to wait a little while for the right one to come along.”

Thornton says, however, that the lease won’t automatically trigger a speculative second phase in Point West’s 800,000-square-foot planned office component. He says the three sites remaining for office development could hold up to 450,000 square feet. “We’ll re-evaluate the market come fourth quarter and decide if it can support speculative development,” he says. “In the meantime, we’ll market the remaining sites for build to suits.”

Meanwhile, one million square feet has been built on Point West’s industrial side, and is occupied by Welton USA and Hobby Lobby.