Dallas Bucks Its Past: '08 Victim Not Culprit

DALLAS-Unlike recessionary times of the past, Dallas/Fort Worth is a victim and not a culprit for stalled investment sales and slow leasing decisions. Sound fundamentals across the board are allowing office building owners to hold their ground at this stage of the game.

“Dallas is a victim of the outside. The fundamentals of this market remain more balanced than any other market in the country,” says John Alvarado, Jones Lang LaSalle’s managing director in Dallas. “We’re at a standstill because we’re in a moment of transition.”

Zaya Younan, chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Younan Properties Inc., faults the Feds for not stepping in quicker to bail out the system so markets like Dallas, where fundamentals are still good, could keep moving. “They reacted very slowly to come up with policies to reverse the trends,” Younan contends, “and to this day, they are reacting slower than they should be. That’s why the confidence factor is lower.”