958,012-SF Prized Package Making Market Run

DALLAS-BentleyForbes Group is dangling 958,012 sf of predominately trophy space before the capital markets, offering its prized Preston Center space and a newer class A in Far North Dallas to the acquisitions-hungry crowd.

CB Richard Ellis executive vice presidents Russell Ingrum and Gary Carr have secured the listing after a closely guarded round of interviews with a select group of investment sales teams. The offering’s crown jewel, bought in May 2005 for $135 million, is the 418,584-sf Preston Commons, a trio of mid-rise buildings in the 8100 block of Preston Road, and 303,000-sf Sterling Plaza at 5949 Sherry Lane. The Far North Dallas piece is the 236,428-sf Park Center at 2400 N. Dallas Parkway, a suburban beauty acquired for $50 million just 11 months ago.

“We’re just going to look at what the market will bring,” David W. Cobb, president and CEO of the Los Angeles-based BentleyForbes, tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re testing the market for what the results will look like. If we cannot get a premium, then we will keep them.” The Preston Center trophies are 90% leased and Park Center is 100% occupied.

Cobb says the offering isn’t a signal that BentleyForbes has tired of the Dallas office market, but is more a test of its peers’ hunger for high-end space in two of the region’s top-performing submarkets. “We’re looking to buy more all the time,” he stresses. “We’re not looking to get out of Dallas.”

Neither Cobb nor the brokerage team will venture a guess as to what the prized package will bring. “We’ll let the market tell us what they’re worth,” Cobb says.

A fair benchmark for the deal is the often used comparison of Dallas to Atlanta. The Buckhead submarket, with the same gold-plated space and high barriers to entry as Preston Center, has had deals close this year at more than $300 per sf. Even BentleyForbes wheels and deals in the Atlanta marketing, with the latest move being the $436-million purchase of the 55-story Bank of America Plaza in the CBD.

Carr says the Dallas trophy showcase’s teaser went out Monday in a broad marketing to all the right players in the capital markets game. “Because of the trophy-core quality of the assets, we believe there’ll be a lot of interest in the buildings,” he says. “The response so far has been good.” The call for offers is penciled for late November.