Nuveen Inks 5 Leases at Dallas Office Campus

Lincoln Centre. Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield

Nuveen Real Estate has closed four new leases and a lease expansion totaling 63,134 square feet at Lincoln Center, a 1.6 million-square-foot office complex in North Dallas.

Hallmark Financial, an insurance agency, has signed a 12-year 16,588-square-foot lease extension at Two Lincoln Center. The company agreed to a $35,652 monthly base rent for the new offices, according to a report filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency will now occupy a total of 63,760 square feet in the 19-story tower.

Cushman & Wakefield negotiated leasing agreements on behalf of the landlord.

The new tenants at the complex include:

• Slalom, a business consulting firm, which signed a 15,000-square-foot lease;
• Andersen Tax, a San Francisco-based tax firm, will occupy a 10,079-square-foot suite;
• Bridgecrest, an auto loan servicer, signed for 10,338 square feet of office space;
• Bridge Tower, a lending firm, will move into a 11,129-square-foot suite.

The Cushman & Wakefield team that negotiated the leases on behalf of Nuveen Real Estate included Managing Director Matt Schendle, Executive Managing Director Clint Madison and Senior Associate Zach.

Last year, members of the same team worked on behalf of Nuveen to arrange a leasing agreement with Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages. The company, one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the U.S., relocated at Two Lincoln Center, joining a tenant roster that includes MetLife, Societe Generale, Northwestern Mutual, Washington Federal and North Dallas Clinic.

Updating the office experience

The surge in leasing activity at the campus is due to the recent renovations boosting the location’s appeal for businesses that are looking to return to the office, Nuveen Senior Associate Lauren LaFever said in prepared remarks.

Located at 5420 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, 11 miles from downtown Dallas, the campus encompasses three high-rise towers and a smaller creative office building. Developed in phases between 1981 and 1984, One, Two and Three Lincoln Center underwent complete renovations in 2004. One year later, Nuveen acquired the campus from MetLife Real Estate Investment for $255 million, CommercialEdge data shows.

One and Two Lincoln Center received LEED Gold certification in October 2020, following improvements at the irrigation systems. Earlier this year, the landlord invested several million in cosmetic renovations to the property’s food hall, lobby, outdoor areas and fitness facility.

In January, Nuveen invested nearly $120 million in the complete redesign of its Manhattan headquarters. The 27-office tower at 730 Third Avenue is anchored by TIAA, Nuveen’s parent company. CBRE was retained as leasing agent for the property.

DFW office market looking up

Despite a vacancy rate of 18.2 percent as of September, the Dallas-Forth Worth office sector is showing signs that it is slowly recovering, a recent CommercialEdge report shows. Although still higher than the national average, vacancy in the metroplex dropped 70 basis points from the previous month, while asking rates increased 1.6 percent year-over-year through September.

Meanwhile, construction activity in the Metroplex kept a moderate pace in September with projects under construction totaling 5.4 million square feet. The figure accounted for 2 percent of existing inventory, trailing the national construction pipeline by 40 basis points.