Property Types Office
Tenet Healthcare Takes 165,000 SF in Downtown Dallas
Aug 8, 2008
By: Dees Stribling, Contributing Correspondent

Tenet Healthcare Corp., an owner of hospitals and other medical facilities nationwide, is planning to move its headquarters to Downtown Dallas. The company, which only moved to the Dallas area from Southern California in 2004, will lease about 165,000 square feet for 10 years at the 1.2 million-square-foot Fountain Place at 1445 Ross Ave.

According to Tenet, the site selection process took about two years, and spanned the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area. Currently, Tenet is headquartered at 13727 Noel Road in North Dallas, near the junction of the Dallas North Tollway and I-635. Fountain Place had large blocks of available space following the exit of Hunt Co.--which had occupied roughly 300,000 square feet in the building--early this year to occupy its own building.

Tenet says that the Downtown space will not only cost less than its current space, but it also has more efficient floor plans. More than 500 employees will be located in the new headquarters by the end of 2009, though the company, along with its hospitals, will continue to employ 3,000 people in the Dallas area, out of 59,000 nationwide.

Downtown Dallas, which in previous decades was often overlooked as location for corporate headquarters, has made something of a comeback in that regard more recently. Grubb & Ellis Co., in its second quarter 2008 report on the Dallas office market, noted that the Dallas CBD was by far the most active submarket during the quarter, seeing about 192,900 square feet of positive absorption. Among that absorption was Riverstone Residential Group, which moved its Dallas headquarters to a 62,400-square-foot space in Renaissance Tower at 1201 Elm Street. Also, Watson Wyatt Worldwide moved into 52,350 square feet at Lincoln Plaza.

Looking ahead in the Downtown market, AT&T has announced that it will move its regional headquarters from San Antonio to Downtown Dallas, relocating around 700 employees into its existing corporate facility at 208 South Akard St. in Downtown by the end of this year end. American International Group Inc. has inked a 138,000-square-foot lease at the Plaza of the Americas and plans on moving in by January 2009. Capital Institutional Services Inc. has leased 27,700 square feet of space at the Thanksgiving Tower, and will occupy the entire 39th floor later this year.

CB Richard Ellis Inc. represented Tenet in the site selection, with Phil Puckett and Chris Hermann leading the effort. Mike Lewis and Kirby White with Crescent Real Estate Equities represented Fountain Place in the deal.

 
Recent Office Headlines
Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors Nabs 199,000SF Atlanta Office
One Live Oak, a 199,000-square-foot office property in Atlanta, has just been snapped up by Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors L.L.C., which made the purchase on behalf of tenant-in-common investors. Crescent Real Estate Equities was the seller, having shelled out $31 million to acquire the property from TMW Real Estate Group in late 2004.
Pacific Office Properties Nabs $195M Portfolio
Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc. and an institutional co-investor have acquired a portfolio of seven Southern California office complexes for $195 million. The combined properties contain more than 1 million leasable square feet across 15 office and flex buildings.
Spear Street Takes Austin Office Portfolio
San Francisco-based Spear Street Capital has acquired an office property portfolio consisting of Riata Corporate Park and Riata Crossing in Austin. The complex includes 13 buildings totaling about 1.1 million square feet in the northwest submarket of that city, not far from the JJ Pickle Research Campus of the University of Texas at Austin, a center for electronic, aerospace, mechanical, petroleum and environmental-health engineering research.
Skinner Announces Move to Marlborough, Mass.
Skinner Inc., the  auction house, has announced it will move from its long-time Bolton, Mass. gallery to a new facility located at 274 Cedar Hill Street in Marlborough, Mass.
Parkway Pockets $25M in Sale of St. Petersburg Office
Parkway Properties Inc. has concluded the $26 million disposition of Wachovia Plaza, a 186,000-square-foot office asset in St. Petersburg, Fla., that the company has owned since 1998.