Brookdale Acquires 1.4 MSF Dallas Office Complex

January 17, 2012
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Brookdale Investors Six L.P. has just added 1.4 million square feet of Class A office space to its portfolio with the acquisition of The Towers at Williams Square in Irving, Tex. Brookdale Investors Six, the sixth fund of commercial real estate investment firm The Brookdale Group, purchased the Dallas-area asset from TIAA-CREF.

Completed in 1985 on a 16-acre lakefront site in the Las Colinas master-planned community, Williams Square is a complex of four buildings surrounding a locally celebrated bronze statue featuring nine Texas mustangs. Anchoring the group is the Central Tower, a 26-story high-rise of approximately 614,500 square feet. The remaining buildings on the site include the East Tower and West Tower, twin 14-story structures encompassing 363,400-square-feet each, and the five-story Chamber Tower, which contains 52,000 square feet.

In addition to office space, Williams Square also feature an 8,000-square-foot fitness facility and an 8,000-square-foot café. The complex has been upgraded over the years and is very much operating in the 21st century, with such modern technology offerings as high-bandwidth capacity and full redundancy.

Investor interest in the Dallas market continues on an upward trajectory. In 2011, investment sales activity was double the volume seen in 2010, according to a report by commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Major metropolitan Dallas trades in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone included KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT’s purchase of a 729,000-square-foot group of office properties consisting of the 180,900-square-foot Palisades Central I; the 246,700-square-foot Palisades Central II; and Greenway Plaza I, II and III, accounting for a combined 301,400 square feet. And in an 82-property portfolio acquisition from Duke Realty, Blackstone came into possession of the 160,000-square-foot Duke Bridges III, the 150,000-square-foot One Allen Center and the 52,000-square-foot Metasolv Building I.

Brookdale is actively hunting for opportunities beyond the Lone Star State. “The Williams Square acquisition aligns perfectly with our current strategy of investing in Class A office properties in select high-growth Sunbelt office markets and submarkets,” Robert Turner, a senior vice president with Brookdale, said. Williams Square marks Brookdale’s third buy within the last 30 days. In December, the fund acquired the 111,800-square-foot Trinity Place in suburban Raleigh, N.C., and the 527,000-square-foot SunTrust Financial Centre in Tampa, Fla.