Dallas/Fort Worth Renewals Rule Leasing Activity

DALLAS-The buzz word around town is “renewal”–office and industrial–as tenants and building owners restructure pacts early before the price goes up or lights go out. From the conference rooms to the lunch table, brokers are talking about deals being reworked with “three and four years” left on the terms.

The early deal-making is a quid pro quo as tenants get space, oftentimes with expansion, at today’s rates and building owners avoid as much as a year’s down time in landing a replacement or the added cost of an extensive makeover to satisfy a newcomer. There are several big hooks waiting to be set around town, including the summer’s most closely watched, the law firm of Baron & Budd, which has yet to put the pen to the paper to renew several hundred thousand sf in the Centrum at 3102 Oak Lawn Ave. in Uptown.

The latest stack of deals has 116,957 sf in office and industrial renewals–and more on the way, say the deal’s senders. “They see the economy getting better and rental rates going up,” Don Dowell, Trizec Properties Inc.’s leasing manager for Bank One Center in the Dallas CBD, tells GlobeSt.com. “The landlords are renewing three and four years out. It’s kind of the last gasp at getting the best deal.” Besides, he says, it’s wise to do because the field is full of “enough hungry landlords to take them out of a building.”