Strong Demand Fuels Dallas Commercial Market in 2005
By Beverly Ford
Last updated: January 3, 2006 08:24am
http://www.globest.com/news/445_445/dallas/141605-1.html
DALLAS-Strong demand fueled by low interest rates created a boom in Dallas’ real estate market in 2005 with investors shelling out billions for commercial properties at pace that hasn’t been seen since the 1980s.
The city’s biggest sale came late in the year when the New York-based Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund bought the three-building Lincoln Centre project from Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. for more than $250 million. That same week in mid-December, TIAA-CREF sold the two-building Millennium Center in Irving to an unnamed investment partnership along with the additional 600 acres in Las Colinas, which went to Houston developer Hines for $100 million.
Construction also kicked up at Uptown's Victory Park project where a $450-million second phase got under way with the groundbreaking of six new buildings that will bring 600 residential units, 175,000 sf of retail, 120,000 sf of office space, a one-acre park and the W Dallas Victory Hotel and residences to the 75-acre site. A three-building third phase will add another 280 apartments and condos, 135,000 sf of retail and 600,000 sf of office space.
In Downtown, Main Street’s landmark Mercantile National Bank building underwent a facelift when Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises began a $250-million, mixed-use project to convert the vacant 31-story skyscraper into 225 rental units, 30,000 sf of street retail and 400 parking spaces. The plan also calls for the 14-story Securities Building, 22-story Mercantile Dallas Building and the five-story Securities Annex to be razed and the site rebuilt with a 15-story, 150-apartment structure.
The investment scene also heated up in the city when Morgan Stanley put its four building Texas office portfolio on the market in October. The three class A buildings and one class B, totaling 511,444 sf, which haven’t yet closed, are expected to sell for around $60 million.