Trammell Crow JV to Construct DFW Building for Federal Agency

By Gail Kalinoski

GSA Texas Service Center

Trammell Crow Co. and ElmTree Funds have teamed up to construct a 259,947-square-foot building in Irving, Texas, that will be leased to the General Services Administration for 20 years as a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Texas service center.

The single-story Class A building, which will have office and support space, will consolidate three USCIS Metroplex locations at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Construction on the build-to-suit property at the intersection of North Belt Line Road and President George Bush Turnpike is slated for completion by early 2020. The 27-acre site will be leased from DFW Airport.

Gensler is the architect and Manhattan Construction Co. will be the general contractor. JPMorgan Chase Bank provided construction financing. CBRE will manage the property. Don Day and Jim Plaga represented the GSA in the transaction.

“By aligning our development expertise both locally and with our team in D.C., we can deliver a best-in-class facility for this important branch of the federal government. By consolidating several locations, the USCIS will be able to more efficiently deliver on their important mission,” Scott Krikorian, senior managing director of TCC’s Dallas/Fort Worth business unit, said in a prepared statement.

“ElmTree is pleased to complete its fourth investment on the DFW Airport and work with TCC and the GSA,” Joseph Yiu, managing principal of St. Louis-based ElmTree, a private equity firm and fund manager, said in prepared remarks. “Dallas continues to outperform the rest of the country and we have made a concerted effort to invest in submarkets that are well positioned for growth.”

ElmTree’s investment in Texas comes a month after it announced it had acquired six fully leased single-tenant properties in Alabama, Michigan, Missouri and South Carolina for $300 million. Those assets consisted of three office, two industrial and one health-care properties. Since its founding in 2011, ElmTree has acquired, developed or financed more than $6 billion in commercial real estate properties.

Texas isn’t the only location where the GSA is consolidating USCIS facilities. In September, JLL secured a 15-year lease for the USCIS to occupy 574,767 square feet at One Capital Gateway Drive in Camp Springs, Md. That lease will enable the USCIS to consolidate five locations into one headquarters campus by 2020.

TCC’S federal jobs

TCC has worked with the GSA and federal government numerous times, including signing a long-term lease for nearly 473,000 square feet of space with the Federal Communications Commission at Sentinel Square III in Washington, D.C., in January 2017. The FCC is slated to move into its space at the 11-story building by November 2019.

The development firm also teamed up with USAA Real Estate Co. to build a 357,324-square-foot build-to-suit project for the Federal Aviation Administration’s Southwest Region Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. The six-story office building, also designed by Gensler, started in November 2013 and was completed in October 2015. Located on a 45-acre site at Heritage Parkway and Interstate 35W, the building is leased to the FAA for 20 years.

Image courtesy of Trammell Crow Co.