East Dallas Office Tower Changes Hands

Lakewood Tower. Image courtesy of August Real Estate Co.

August Real Estate Co. has acquired Lakewood Tower, a 120,000-square-foot Class B office building in Dallas, from a joint venture led by Caddo Holdings.

Goodwin Advisors facilitated the deal on behalf of the seller. Hamilton Realty Finance secured acquisition financing from Veritex Bank.

Located at 6301 Gaston Ave., the nine-story building, originally developed in 1981, was renovated in 2011 and 2016. Caddo Holdings acquired the property in 2010 and invested $4 million in upgrades. The new owner plans to invest capital in additional improvements to reposition the tower as a Class A asset.

The building’s tenant mix spans several sectors, including real estate, health care and finance. Notable tenants include Wells Fargo, Briggs Freeman and Baylor Scott & White. At the time of the sale, the property was 97 percent leased.

Lakewood Tower, some 4 miles from downtown, marks August’s third acquisition in the East Dallas submarket, preceded by the purchase of two properties within the city’s Deep Ellum neighborhood: the historic Continental Gin Building and the newly renovated 333 First Avenue, originally developed in 1926.

In addition to the 120,000-square-foot tower, the 3.5-acre parcel is home to a four-story building, which was not included in the sale. Caddo’s smaller structure, part of its Office Reimagined brand, contains some 155 private office units, a café, conference rooms and coworking space.

Cross-sector growth

Office transactions within the Dallas-Fort Worth metro have picked up this year. In June, according to CommercialEdge data, nine properties totaling 1.2 million square feet changed hands, a jump of more than 300 percent compared to the same time in 2020.

While most of those transactions involved value-add assets, newer Class A properties are also in demand. In August, MetLife purchased its second asset within the $1.8 billion Frisco Station, a 242-acre mixed-use development in Frisco, Texas.

The metro is also a leader in terms of industrial development, CommercialEdge shows. In July, the Dallas-Fort Worth market had 32.6 million square feet of industrial projects underway, accounting for nearly 7 percent of development in the sector nationwide.