Prescott Sells 242 KSF Office Complex in Fort Worth,Texas

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Investment sales activity continues at a solid pace and Prescott Realty Group’s sale of Summit Office Park is among the latest transactions. Prescott sold the 242,500-square-foot property to Pennybacker Capital, seven years after purchasing the asset for its portfolio.

Prescott relied on commercial real estate and capital markets services provider HFF to secure a buyer for the property, which undoubtedly attracted a great deal of attention.

“Investment activity in Dallas/Fort Worth has remained at high levels with healthy sales volume across all asset classes,” according to a third quarter report by commercial real estate services firm CBRE Group Inc. “It is the continuation of ‘the perfect storm’– investor demand and attractive financing meet asset pricing supported by strong market fundamentals.”

Summit Office Park sprouted up on a nine-acre site at 1200 and 1300 Summit Ave. in 1974, featuring a respective 120,400 and 122,100 square feet. Today the two eight-story buildings boast a combined occupancy rate of 95 percent, which belies the current state of office occupancies in the market today. Per the CBRE report, the direct vacancy rate is 17.3 percent in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and 13.6 percent in Fort Worth.

Lackluster occupancies or no, Dallas/Fort Worth remains an investors favorite. Among the transactions in the third quarter were The Blackstone Group’s acquisition of the 1.8-million-square-foot Solana Business Park in suburban Dallas, and PIMCO’s purchase of the 845,000-square-foot Park Central 7-8-9 complex in Dallas.  Also, Hines added Fort Worth to its list of property locations with the acquisition of the 410,000-square-foot Chesapeake Plaza, also known as the Pier 1 Imports Building.

The lending community is keen on Dallas/Fort Worth as well. As noted in the report, “The real estate debt capital markets are also quite active throughout the DFW area and the state of Texas. Capital is plentiful for all property types and for loan terms from two to 30 years…[and there is] a full spectrum of lenders actively competing in the marketplace.”

Recently, commercial real estate services firm JLL arranged financing for Montreal-based Olymbec’s acquisition of the 1.3-million-square-foot tower at 1700 Pacific, the fifth largest office building in Dallas. Pennybacker, with the assistance of HFF, obtained a seven-year loan from ViewPoint Bank to finance the acquisition of Summit Office Park.