JV Plans Transformative Work/Life Office Renovation

WESTLAKE, TX—When GlenStar and partner Singerman Real Estate acquired The Terrace at Solana, the partnership took on more than an eight building 1.1-million-square foot office campus. The GlenStar approach infuses more of a work/life process to incorporate health and wellness features into its projects.

“With the recent corporate relocations and significant construction activity in the market, this was a unique opportunity to acquire an office campus in a high growth area and deploy our proven redevelopment strategy,” said GlenStar principal Matt Omundson. “We are looking forward to repositioning and rebranding the asset.”

The campus is located at 1500 Solana Blvd. It has an adjacent approximately 20-acre office development site and the Solana Fitness Club operated by Larry North. The Terrace at Solana consists of six 125,000-square-foot five-story buildings (buildings 1 through 6), a three-story 129,000-square-foot building (building 7) and a 309,000-square-foot six-story property (building 8).

The partnership will inject significant capital for enhanced tenant amenities and activated outdoor corridors. The JV will dedicate approximately 40,000 square feet in building 7 to amenities, implementing GlenStar’s tech-ready, collaborative and experiential office prototype to create an environment where tenants can engage and entertain. Plans call for a conferencing center, a cafe, a tenant-only 24/7 fitness center, a tenant lounge, a patio and an entertainment space. In addition, the JV will update and activate the property’s outdoor space creating alfresco health/wellness and conference spaces.

“Today’s discerning tenants want more from their office locations,” adds Omundson. “We are excited to bring our unique and innovative work/life approach to The Terrace at Solana and look forward to introducing current and future tenants to a first-of-its-kind amenities center.”

Omundson says the amenity upgrade is based on GlenStar’s other projects in Chicago and Dallas. It features an app, GlenStar Connect, to provide the class schedules and updates on other campus happenings. The app has been rolled out in approximately half of its projects so far.

“Tenant engagement is as important as the amenity package offered. It supplements the beautiful amenities and gives tenants a reason to use them,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “We offer nutritionists, yoga classes and other tenant gatherings. We think it’s important for tenants to meet their neighbors and that makes the work day more enjoyable.”

Omundson says the hospitality feel being adopted by office developers can be sprinkled into projects to allow for more community engagement.

This is Singerman Real Estate’s first acquisition in the DFW metroplex. It was attracted to DFW’s continued growth potential.

“The overall leasing velocity Dallas has experienced over the last several years, including at the Terrace properties specifically, was attractive,” added Kiley Stevenson, a principal with Singerman Real Estate. “We believe in the long-term growth of the immediate area and are excited about the investment. To be working with a high-caliber firm like GlenStar on what will be a major renovation is especially exciting.”

JLL will continue to lease up the property. GlenStar Properties will handle property management.

The Terrace at Solana is just one piece of the larger Solana project, a 233-acre master-planned development in Westlake, one of Forbes’ “Richest Neighborhoods in America” and home to several Fortune 1000 companies such as TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Deloitte University, Sabre, Goosehead Insurance and Fidelity Investments. Its location on Texas State Highway 114–just west of DFW International Airport and midway between Dallas and Fort Worth–is within a 30-minute drive of 950,000 highly skilled workers.

The acquisition doubles GlenStar’s Dallas portfolio. The developer is currently redeveloping Energy Square plus The Meadows Building, a 1.1 million-square-foot office campus next door to SMU. GlenStar is transforming Energy Square into a community teaming with restaurants, retail and green space. Completion is expected this fall.

“If history is any indicator, the winners are likely to be newer well-located properties,” Steve Triolet, Younger Partners research director, tells GlobeSt.com. “The major pain points will be older inventory and highly leveraged properties that are pushing the envelope as far as locations outside of the core submarkets.”