Developers Hit the Ground With New D-FW Office Building Projects
Dallas-area office developers are shrugging off worries about the economy and higher construction costs.
A new round of construction projects stretches from downtown Dallas to Frisco and everywhere in between. Developers are currently building almost two dozen buildings with more than 5 million square feet in the area — an increase of more than 30% from what was being built at the end of 2018.
The construction is in a combination of speculative and fully leased corporate projects. And most of the building is in the 'burbs.
"It's a pretty good-sized number of projects, but our demand for office space has been really solid in Dallas," said Greg Biggs, managing director of JLL. "Dallas is continuing to attract business." "Developers feel good about where they are in the economic cycle and the product that they are building," Biggs said. "They also have lenders that are willing to lend them the money."
Even more office projects are gearing up to start before the end of the year. Just this week, developer Hillwood Urban and USAA Real Estate started work on one of the largest new office projects in the area. The 15-story, 365,000-square-foot Victory Commons building is going on the northwest corner of downtown Dallas in Victory Park. Just a few blocks away on North Akard Street, another firm — Kaizen Development Partners — has begun site work for a 300,000-square-foot office high-rise called The Link. Both of those buildings are starting without major tenants, but about 40% of the office space under construction in the D-FW area is already spoken for.
And property brokers are betting that not every building being talked about will actually be built...
