Dallas-Fort Worth Market Update: Office Sales Across the Board

Dallas-Fort Worth had its fair share of office investments in December, according to CommercialEdge. More than 4.9 million square feet of space sold across the metro, up 37 percent month-over-month and 96.5 percent year-over-year.

Although transactions included all types of asset classes, 23 out of 44 deals involved Class B properties. Investors closed mostly on traditional office spaces, with a sole medical office building in the sales mix. Of the total, only eight assets sold in urban submarkets and only one in Dallas’ CBD.

December’s largest property to trade in single-asset deal was a two-building, 699,224-square-foot campus in Farmers Branch. Baltimore-based Pratt Street Capital acquired Park West from NexBank, financing the purchase with a $81.5 million note from Rialto Capital Management.

However, the month’s largest deal in terms of square footage pertained to a portfolio transaction. CIP Real Estate purchased 15 office buildings totaling 995,545 square feet from Momentum Commercial Realty, in a $265 million deal that also comprised 11 industrial buildings.

A closer look at 2021’s deals

The Metroplex saw 181 properties totaling more than 28.3 million square feet sold in 2021. The volume was more than double the total square footage that traded throughout 2020, when roughly 13.9 million square feet changed hands.

Last year’s deals amounted to some $2.6 billion at an average price of $245 per square foot, 19.6 percent lower than the national $293 per square foot. In 2020, sales totaled $1.8 billion at an average $247 per square foot.

Class A and A+ properties accounted for a quarter of the transactions perfected in the Metroplex. In terms of location, investors favored suburban buildings: Only 8 deals closed in central business district and another 30 in urban areas.

The 1.9 million-square-foot Campus at Legacy West in Plano was the largest office property that changed hands in the metro in 2021. Capital Commercial Investments acquired the asset from Beal Bank in a deal that closed in November.

Some other assets larger than 1 million square feet that traded last year were all Dallas properties:

• The 1.7 million-square-foot Renaissance Tower sold to Square Mile Capital Management from The Moinian Group;
• The 1.3 million-square-foot Crescent was re-acquired by Crescent Real Estate for $700 million from JP Morgan Asset Management, one of 2021’s priciest deals;
• The 1.1 million-square-foot Bryan Tower changed hands for $53.2 million at foreclosure into a partnership of Wells Fargo Bank and Midland Loan Services.

CommercialEdge covers 8M+ property records in the United States. View the latest CommercialEdge national monthly office report here. We included properties of 25,000+ square feet in our research.