KPMG will get its keys in September to its 201 Main St. space, where finish-out has begun. "They did their homework and did look around and understand what their options would be," says George Duncan, senior vice president in Fort Worth for Dallas-based Staubach Co., who partnered with executive vice president Carl Ewert to work out a renewal with KPMG's landlord for the past decade. Sundance Square had in-house broker Robert Gamblin doing its negotiating.

"It wasn't an early renewal, but it was a timely renewal," Duncan tells GlobeSt.com. He says the lease expiration simply wasn't an issue during the negotiations. According to the North Texas Data Exchange, the class A office space is tagged at $29 per sf, full service.

KPMG turned its search team loose about one year ago. Duncan says there were at least five full-floor options available in the Fort Worth CBD due in large part to new projects coming on line.

Duncan says KPMG will move from the 25th floor of DR Horton Tower at 301 Main St., where it occupied essentially the same amount of class A space. The New York City-based accounting firm has 105 workers in its Fort Worth office. "An office in Downtown Fort Worth represents a good investment for us," says KPMG managing partner Brad Forsberg, citing "a sense of pride" in having an office in the Downtown's Sundance Square.

The 716,533-sf Wells Fargo Tower, built in 1982, has historically high occupancy, with the KPMG deal bumping it to 99%, according to Sundance Square marketing director Tracy Gilmour. The 819,929-sf, 38-story DR Horton Tower also is 99% leased, but that includes Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. Nonetheless, Gilmour says both towers have tenants and would-be tenants waiting for space, with their eyes already on KPMG's to-be-vacated space.

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