As John Goff’s Crescent Fort Worth project prepares to open, the office component of the project aligns perfectly with current trends in the office leasing market, said Todd Burnette, managing director for JLL Fort Worth.
“Companies are finding that they can go into these new buildings with all the amenities, all the bells and whistles, all the technology, and companies are walking toward those,” said Burnette. “And the perfect example in Fort Worth is The Crescent. I think they’re 94% pre-leased.”
Some of those companies leasing space in the eight story, 168,000-square-foot office building, are companies related to Goff, but plenty of others are seeking space there as well, Burnette said.
PNC Bank has signed a lease for about 13,000 square feet of office space on the sixth floor at Crescent Real Estate’s mixed-use development at 3230 Camp Bowie Blvd. The financial services firm will join Goff Capital, an affiliate of Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate, which is the developer of the project.
Other companies that have filed permits for the space include Raymond James, Satori Capital and Royal Bank of Canada.
Nick Thomas, a research manager at JLL, said that while the office market may be weak in other areas of the country, office-using employment in Fort Worth and Arlington hit a new high of 258,000 in July, an increase of 6.7% from the prior year and 30.1% since 2018. Office-using employment in Fort Worth and Arlington is 21.1% of total employment, increasing from 18.2% since the start of 2018.
“Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and Houston are all in the top 10 in terms of office use compared to the rest of the country,” he said.
Burnette said The Crescent Fort Worth is defined as a Trophy/AA building, one of only two in Tarrant County. The other is the Frost Tower Fort Worth, the city’s most recent high-rise building that opened in 2018.
Those high-end Class A buildings will be key in attracting new companies to Fort Worth, said Burnette. He noted the City Council just passed $30 million in incentives for two projects valued at $400 million on two high-profile sites, one on West Seventh and the other on University Drive. The projects, from Goldenrod Companies, include 195,000 square feet of new Class A office space.
The incentive package the City Council passed included incentives for Goldenrod to establish office leasing practices that favor tenants relocating from out of the region.
That may help the city’s economic development plans as it seeks to attract companies at or near the central business district, Burnette said.
“Right now, unless a company went up to Alliance, there just wasn’t a whole lot of space available to attract those companies,” he said. “It’s a great tool to have in the economic development box to try to get companies to take a harder look at Fort Worth.”
The combination of employment growth and return-to-office initiatives are expected to slow negative absorption — aka less demand than supply — as companies reassess their office needs, according to the JLL report. The report also notes several new move-ins will absorb some current vacant space. Burns & McDonnell will relocate into over 70,000 square feet of vacant space sublet by Jacobs Engineering at 777 Main in the fourth quarter. The engineering and architecture firm is vacating its lease in the former Pier 1 building, which is currently under renovation as the future Fort Worth City Hall.
Burnette said that one in four jobs created since the pandemic were in Texas and many of those were in North Texas.
“There are more people moving here and the office market needs to be ready,” he said.
Firm with Dallas, Fort Worth offices acquires Spaeth Communications
A public relations agency with offices in both Dallas and Fort Worth, Sunwest Communications, has announced that it has acquired Spaeth Communications.
Spaeth Communications founder Merrie Spaeth will join the Sunwest team as Founder, Spaeth Training. Prior to founding Spaeth Communications in 1987, Spaeth was a producer for ABC’s 20/20 and a speechwriter for the founder and chairman of CBS, William S. Paley. Eventually, she became director of public affairs for the Federal Trade Commission and was then appointed director of media relations at the White House in the administration of President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1985. She also was a co-star in the 1964 film, “The World of Henry Orient,” which starred Peter Sellers.
Spaeth will lead Sunwest’s communications training services, including spokesperson media training, presentation skills, witness preparation, leadership training and building a corporate culture.
East Seminary to get Goldee’s rib spinoff
Goldee’s Barbecue Restaurant, the incredibly small, but incredibly honored barbecue restaurant in far south Fort Worth, has announced they will be expanding their brand to the new Ribbee’s rib stand in November, according to a Facebook post. The restaurant will be located at the site of the former Bonefire Grill, which was housed in what was once a Sonic Drive-In at 923 E. Seminary Drive, just east of Interstate 35W. Goldee’s main location is at 4645 Dick Price Road where it is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. until they are sold out. The out-of-the-way restaurant received attention in 2021 when Texas Monthly named it the top barbecue restaurant in the state.
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Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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