16,110-SF Floor Grabs Five-Year Lease

FORT WORTH-With the Barnett Shale fueling the decision, a Houston-based design and engineering firm for the oil and gas industry has signed a full-floor lease for Two City Place in the CBD. The 16,110-sf office will be ready to light Oct. 1.

Universal Ensco Inc. made its decision on the five-year lease for the 19-story class A tower at 100 Throckmorton St. in less than one week, Chris Wright, senior associate in the Fort Worth office of Dallas-based Stream Realty Partners LP, tells GlobeSt.com. “They found a spot they liked and got the parties together for a quick resolution,” he says. “When you have a motivated tenant and a landlord that wants that tenant, things can happen quickly.”

Universal Ensco has been using an executive suite in City Center towers at 201 and 301 Commerce St. as its operations hub until it landed a more permanent spot, according to Wright, who partners with Stream associate Franklin Swann to lease City Place’s office component for PNL Cos. of Dallas. The new tenant’s brokers were Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. senior directors Matt Heidelbaugh and Chris Oliver.

Wright says contractors are being lined up for the finish-out work and permits being sought from the city. “We expect them to start swinging hammers any day now,” he says.

Universal Ensco has taken the 17th floor in the 312,500-sf tower, driving occupancy to 75.23%. The quoted rate is $25 per sf to $30 per sf plus electric in the first phase of the $150-million Downtown redevelopment. The second phase is the redo of the former Fort Worth Outlet Square into 110,000 sf of retail and office and 430 additional parking spaces for the two-tower project. The Shops at City Place, the heart of the second phase, is slated to come on line in mid-2009.