The $25 million renovation of the Terraces at Solana office campus in Westlake has attracted new tenants, including Century 21 Mike Bowman, Texas’s largest Century 21 brokerage. The property, located at 1500 Solana Boulevard, consists of eight buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet. According to Glenstar and Singerman Real Estate, the Chicago-based owners, these recent leases have increased occupancy to 80 percent.
Century 21 Mike Bowman will move from its previous 17,000-square-foot office in Grapevine to an 18,000-square-foot space on the first floor of Building 8 starting in September. Pluralsight, a workforce development company, relocated its headquarters from Draper, Utah, into a 26,000-square-foot area in Building 6. Defense contractor M1 Support Services is moving its headquarters from Denton to a similar-sized space in Building 5.
The leasing activity follows renovations completed in 2021 that added about 50,000 square feet of amenities such as a restaurant, conference center, gym and covered parking. Dave Bowman, president of Century 21 Mike Bowman said: “The amenities sealed the deal for Century 21 Mike Bowman.” He also noted that the brokerage would be able to host national events in the conference center.
Recent trends show companies seeking office locations closer to where employees live. Suburbs like Westlake are seeing demand as firms look for spaces with more amenities and convenient locations. JLL reported positive net absorption for North Texas offices halfway through the year; suburbs such as Plano and McKinney led this trend (https://www.us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights/research/dallas-fort-worth-office-insight). However, overall vacancy across Dallas-Fort Worth remains high at about 27.7 percent due to empty space in older properties built during the ’80s and ’90s (https://www.cbre.com/insights/figures/dallas-fort-worth-office-figures-q2-2024).
CBRE noted that vacancy rates have declined among Class A properties as companies seek higher-quality offices with modern features to encourage employees’ return (https://www.cbre.com/insights/books/us-real-estate-market-outlook-2024/dallas-fort-worth-market-outlook-2024).
