Late last year, something happened at Fossil Inc. that had never happened before. A few members of its creative team were able to meet with a couple of folks from the finance department. Without scheduling anything in advance. Without getting into their cars. Without crossing a major highway.
That's because, for the first time in its 28-year history, the Richardson, TX-based consumer fashion company has all of its employees under one roof. In March of 2011—leading a trend of corporate consolidations that pervaded the Dallas-Fort Worth real estate market last year—Fossil decided to lease 535,000 square feet in a single office building in Richardson. Previously, its executive and creative teams were in one building on one side of a major highway, and a different building housed its finance and IT functions.
Now, Fossil's headquarters are in a newly redeveloped property with an interior layout designed specifically to meet Fossil's needs. Each floor features an open plan to invite teamwork, and there are now as many lounges—specifically designed for impromptu meetings—as traditional conference rooms. With all employees together in the same building, the company has been able to achieve its major goal when it began to evaluate its commercial real estate situation several years ago: collaboration.
Collaboration and consolidation were a recurring theme in the Dallas-Fort Worth office market in 2011. Corporate users were more active than they had been in 2009 or 2010 but, by and large, they were still seeking efficiency in terms of square footage, lease rate and energy usage. While Fossil was the largest lease signed in our market last year, other local corporations expanded, relocated or developed new buildings in pursuit of collaboration.
Ericsson leased 260,000 square feet in Richardson, enabling the company to expand by 60,000 square feet in its current building; Alcon Labs signed the largest lease in Tarrant County (90,000 feet) in part to allow for the collaboration between employees from Fort Worth and Atlanta; and another Encana—a Canadian oil and gas company—decided to house its mid-continent business unit in a new 320,000-square-foot build-to-suit in Plano.
Housing employees under one roof is not enough, however, to ensure a happy and growing employee base. Proximity to plentiful amenities is crucial to attracting new talent and maximizing existing employees' productivity. This is especially true in the DFW market, as the three submarkets that performed the best last year in terms of absorption and rental growth were the three with the best amenity base: Uptown, Preston Center and Plano.
Amenities were a specific driver for Encana, which deliberately sought out a mixed-use environment when evaluating sites for its new development. KDC is currently developing a 12-story high-rise that sits in the midst of one of the area's most thriving mixed-use settings—the Legacy Town Center. Encana's new building, which will house 1,000 employees, is on track for completion later this year. We expect more corporate users to continue the consolidation trend in 2012, as they seek enhanced collaboration, improved recruiting and retention and higher levels of productivity.
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Steve Van Amburgh
Steve Van Amburgh manages KDC’s strategic planning, coordinates all new business development efforts and oversees all acquisition and development activities for the firm and its regional offices. Since assuming leadership of KDC in 2001, the firm has completed more than 133 corporate build-to-suit office and industrial projects valued in excess of $5 billion and totaling more than 30 million square feet. Over the last five years, KDC has developed 9 million square feet nationally, through its offices in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Charlotte. Notable clients include Toyota, State Farm Insurance, JPMorgan Chase, FedEx, Raytheon, Comcast, NBC Universal, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Liberty Mutual and Fluor Corporation.
Van Amburgh has led KDC through many years of growth and financial success, spanning varying industry trends and market conditions. Under his leadership, KDC has been named the NAIOP North Texas Developer of the Year five times and has been awarded numerous best real estate deals by the Dallas Business Journal and D CEO. In addition, Van Amburgh was named a Best Boss in the Business by Real Estate Forum in 2016.
Van Amburgh earned a bachelor of science in economics and commerce at Washington and Lee University. He is celebrating his 27th year with KDC and its predecessor company, The Koll Company. When he is away from the office, Van Amburgh enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf, and hunting.
