Some 2024 CRE Highlights Ahead of Anticipated Banner Year for D-FW

Word is the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area is the top market to watch next year, and if some of the activity logged in 2024 is any indication, 2025 may very well be a banner year for commercial real estate.

Stressing North Texas’ diversified economy and growing population, the latest Emerging Trends in Real Estate report by PwC and the Urban Land Institute advised investors and developers to keep an eye on the market for profitable opportunities, as previously reported by CandysDirt.com. Looking back this year at some of the CRE happenings in the metroplex, it’s no wonder D-FW is getting so much attention.

Here are just some of the CRE highlights to break out of D-FW in 2024.

Whither Downtown Dallas?

In September, Hoque Global and PegasusAblon announced their intention to close on the purchase of Bank of America Plaza, hoping to reinvigorate downtown’s business roots with a new financial district. Speaking at a CRE industry event, PegasusAblon’s founding partner Mike Ablon predicted workers would be returning to the office in 2025.

Work culture in the U.S. was transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, ushering in a new era in which remote and hybrid work arrangements muscled in on traditional office settings. Downtown Dallas felt the shift and continues to grapple with the repercussions. The Dallas Morning News recently reported that the Central Business District’s office vacancy rate stands at 35.8%, a good step above the 24.7% average clocked for the D-FW office market, which itself has ranked high among metros across the country. Apparently, companies like Deloitte and Goldman Sachs have been making the switch to fresher developments in Uptown.

Office vacancies downtown have prompted a stream of conversion projects, with developers looking to bank on the city’s affordable housing crunch. In addition to conversions, new builds are also underway. Centurion American Development Group is working to deliver The Parc on Jackson’s 182 units next year, according to DMN. The site is on the northeast corner of the intersection of Jackson and S. Harwood streets. Another build is in the works on North Pearl Street, with Switzerland-based Empira developing a 35-story high-rise comprising 370 units, Dallas Business Journal reported.

Whether the city center is at an inflection point remains to be seen. Regardless, developers are making moves to reshape the neighborhood.

Fort Worth Stockyards Set To Nearly Double in Size With $1B Private-Public Commitment

One of the metroplex’s biggest tourist attractions will be seeing a significant expansion in the coming years as Majestic Realty Co. and Hickman Companies move to grow the economic impact of the historic Fort Worth Stockyards. Through a joint venture called Fort Worth Heritage, the developers intend to revitalize the area in partnership with M2G Ventures.

Some $630 million in private expenditures will go toward 300,000 square feet of new commercial space between East Exchange Avenue, Packers Street, and Stockyards Boulevard, no fewer than 500 hotel rooms (possibly split between two developments), roughly 300 units of multifamily housing, underground parking, and upgrades to Cowtown Coliseum. Fort Worth City Council approved about $380 million in incentives for the project over the summer.

Expected to generate $425 million in new taxes and $845 million in net value, the project comprises Phase II of a vision that dates back 10 years. Phase I saw the addition of Mule Alley and Hotel Drover, developments that resulted in a $225 million increase in land value and a significant sales tax boost, according to NBC 5.

Google Leases 2 Million-Plus Square Feet for Data Center Infrastructure

Nothing says Texas like data center development, right? While it’s easily one of the least sexy uses for real estate, the unrelenting demand for data storage amid the ongoing AI revolution has resulted in the Lone Star State becoming ground zero for data center development, and D-FW has been getting more than its share.

In the fall, DBJ reported that Google leased a 1.1-million-square-foot warehouse in west Fort Worth’s Majestic Silver Creek Business Park, marking its second major lease in the metroplex this year. The site will help support the company’s growing cloud and data center infrastructure needs. Google also secured over 1 million square feet at Northlake 35 Logistics Park in Denton County, a $20.2 million project dubbed “Project Beast.” The first phase of that project is set to come online in 2026.

CoStar’s director of market analytics, Cody Gibbs, told DBJ that the two leases were among the five biggest signed in Texas this year as of October. And in August, The Real Deal reported that D-FW was clocked as the second largest market for data center development in the U.S. in the first half of 2024 behind only Northern Virginia.

Crow Holdings Delivers Biggest Mass Timber Office in Texas

A new 242,300-square-foot class AA office building hit the market in Frisco this fall, courtesy of Crow Holdings Development, DBJ reported. Designed by Duda|Paine Architects, it is one of the biggest mass timber structures in the United States.

The seven-story building is part of Phase I of the Offices at Southstone Yard, a mixed-use development at 4401 Cirrus Way that seeks to create a “full, indoor/outdoor experience focused on employee well-being.” An additional office building, a parking garage, a park and amphitheater, multifamily housing (roughly 700 units), and a hotel will round out the 45-acre project, which is meant to put an emphasis on providing resident office workers a good quality of life.

Crow Holdings Development is currently seeking tenants for its mass timber office building, touting the structure’s full-facade glass curtain walls, abundant terraces, hospital-grade air filtration, and proximity to three acres of community park space.

Former JCPenney HQ To Undergo $1B Transformation Into Mixed-Use Development

JCPenney has been through the ringer in recent years, ditching its headquarters at 6501 Legacy Drive in Plano after filing for bankruptcy four years ago before moving some of its employees back into a smaller space following a renovation by Capital Commercial Investments. Upgrades included an “open working environment,” fitness centers, an arcade, and two pickleball courts.

Now Capital Commercial Investments is looking to revamp the entire campus in an estimated $1 billion redevelopment project that will transform the 107-acre site into a mixed-use community called The Park at Legacy. The plan calls for further renovations of existing structures, four new office buildings, a new hotel, and up to 750 high-end multifamily housing units (courtesy of StreetLights Residential), according to Community Impact.

Plano City Council approved zoning for the project in November.