Frisco's Hall Office Park Weighing Plans for More Spec Office
By Connie Gore, GlobeSt.com
FRISCO, TX-With a banner year of leasing under way, Craig Hall plans to decide within 45 days if it's time to raise another spec building in the 1.65-million-sf Hall Office Park. In the past two months, the team has closed 289,284 sf of deals and is on track to have the park fully leased by year's end.
"We're behind the curve for the first time since we started," Hall tells GlobeSt.com. "It's by far the best leasing year and we did not expect it."
Hall Office Park, now marking its ninth year, can support three million sf. Hall's kept the "key piece"--adjacent to the Dallas North Tollway--in his land bank as a development site for taller buildings and higher density. The plan has been modified several times through the years, but now the developer says "it's getting close to where it needs to get finalized."
Hall says he's getting bids on a new building and alternatives for a couple existing ones. "In order to build future buildings, the rents are going to have to go up," he stresses. Current rents are $23 per sf to $24 per sf for the class A space; concessions are down considerably. By Hall's projections, rents need to be in the $24 per sf to $26 per sf range to support construction at today's prices. "I'm not sure how fast the market will adjust to that," he says.
Hall attributes this year's traction, in part, to larger companies' willingness to look north due to the region's demographical shift, but he says the lion's share of the credit goes to the park's corporate-style amenities package. "People realize we're no longer on the extreme, but the location of the future," he explains. "Bigger companies today have more interest in the general location than they did two, three, four or five years ago. I don't think there's an easy was to predict the economy and office leasing in Dallas. At times, we've had more than we wanted and now we don't have enough." Since the year began, 472,795 sf has been leased.
The leasing pattern has been five-year terms for smaller tenants and six- to eight-year terms for larger firms. The deals are "moderately stair-stepped," Hall says. Lately, the sweet spot's been hovering 25,000 sf, which in most cases factors out to a full floor. The park's 11 office buildings presently house 135 companies with 3,800 employees.
The latest six-year lease, Ignite Technologies Inc., fills the balance of the 128,000-sf mid-rise at 3211 Internet Blvd. The firm will move in Sept. 1 as will Sanyo Energy USA Corp., which took 29,842 sf for the long term at 2600 Network Blvd. Ignite now offices at 5910 N. Central Expressway in Dallas. Ignite was represented by Steve Thelen and Bo Bond with Dallas-based Staubach Co. Jean Farris, Hall's director of leasing, bargained its terms with James L. Gandy, president of the Frisco Economic Development Corp., and its business development director, Nancy Windham, negotiating economic incentives to set the hook.
To date this year, AmeriSourceBergen Specialty Group has been the biggest catch with two leases, totaling 213,762 sf, and 10- and 12-year terms. The Chesterbrook, PA-based company is taking all of 3101 Gaylord Parkway, which delivers in January, and picking up the 80,655-sf balance in a future addition that's penciled for a Jan.1, 2009 delivery, according to Hall.
FRISCO, TX-With a banner year of leasing under way, Craig Hall plans to decide within 45 days if it's time to raise another spec building in the 1.65-million-sf Hall Office Park. In the past two months, the team has closed 289,284 sf of deals and is on track to have the park fully leased by year's end.
"We're behind the curve for the first time since we started," Hall tells GlobeSt.com. "It's by far the best leasing year and we did not expect it."
Hall Office Park, now marking its ninth year, can support three million sf. Hall's kept the "key piece"--adjacent to the Dallas North Tollway--in his land bank as a development site for taller buildings and higher density. The plan has been modified several times through the years, but now the developer says "it's getting close to where it needs to get finalized."
Hall says he's getting bids on a new building and alternatives for a couple existing ones. "In order to build future buildings, the rents are going to have to go up," he stresses. Current rents are $23 per sf to $24 per sf for the class A space; concessions are down considerably. By Hall's projections, rents need to be in the $24 per sf to $26 per sf range to support construction at today's prices. "I'm not sure how fast the market will adjust to that," he says.
Hall attributes this year's traction, in part, to larger companies' willingness to look north due to the region's demographical shift, but he says the lion's share of the credit goes to the park's corporate-style amenities package. "People realize we're no longer on the extreme, but the location of the future," he explains. "Bigger companies today have more interest in the general location than they did two, three, four or five years ago. I don't think there's an easy was to predict the economy and office leasing in Dallas. At times, we've had more than we wanted and now we don't have enough." Since the year began, 472,795 sf has been leased.
The leasing pattern has been five-year terms for smaller tenants and six- to eight-year terms for larger firms. The deals are "moderately stair-stepped," Hall says. Lately, the sweet spot's been hovering 25,000 sf, which in most cases factors out to a full floor. The park's 11 office buildings presently house 135 companies with 3,800 employees.
The latest six-year lease, Ignite Technologies Inc., fills the balance of the 128,000-sf mid-rise at 3211 Internet Blvd. The firm will move in Sept. 1 as will Sanyo Energy USA Corp., which took 29,842 sf for the long term at 2600 Network Blvd. Ignite now offices at 5910 N. Central Expressway in Dallas. Ignite was represented by Steve Thelen and Bo Bond with Dallas-based Staubach Co. Jean Farris, Hall's director of leasing, bargained its terms with James L. Gandy, president of the Frisco Economic Development Corp., and its business development director, Nancy Windham, negotiating economic incentives to set the hook.
To date this year, AmeriSourceBergen Specialty Group has been the biggest catch with two leases, totaling 213,762 sf, and 10- and 12-year terms. The Chesterbrook, PA-based company is taking all of 3101 Gaylord Parkway, which delivers in January, and picking up the 80,655-sf balance in a future addition that's penciled for a Jan.1, 2009 delivery, according to Hall.
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