Cawley Partners Keeps Building Office Like It's 2019
Fears over the office market's future are not getting Dallas-based Cawley Partners down on the asset class. They're not even slowing it down from launching new developments.
The Dallas-based developer plans to build a new 600K SF office campus in Frisco.
Cawley's latest announcement comes on the heels of its November launch of plans for a 500K SF office-centered development in The Colony.
Its latest development, known as Tate + Toll, encompasses two Class-A office towers situated at the corner of Dallas North Tollway and Warren Parkway in Frisco.
“Given the location and our ability to offer the latest in clean technology and touchless accessibility, Tate + Toll is going to be a very desirable home for corporations moving to DFW,” Cawley Partners CEO Bill Cawley said in a statement.
He continues to bet big on DFW office even after the coronavirus pandemic slowed overall activity in the market. In the past year, space on the DFW office sublease market has grown to 9.5M SF, causing some alarm.
Meanwhile, net absorption in the fourth quarter was negative 401K SF, according to Transwestern data. That was actually a substantial increase from the third quarter, showing signs of a recovery, Transwestern concluded in its Q4 office report.
Transwestern predicts a full office market turnaround by the second half of the year as vaccines become widespread. It's an optimistic forecast that Cawley appears to agree with.
Cawley's firm in January announced plans in partnership with Staubach Capital to acquire the 475K SF Sabre Global corporate headquarters in Southlake. The deal pulled another two-building, 475K SF office campus into Cawley's portfolio.
During an interview with Bisnow in January, Cawley asserted his strong belief that DFW office product will hold its value long-term.
"People have been moving to Texas for 15 years, but I am a big believer that post-Covid when the market turns back on, people will move here in greater numbers than they have in the past," Cawley said at the time.
CORRECTION, MARCH 24, 9:11 A.M. CT: A previous version of this article erroneously reported Cawley has broken ground on its new Frisco project. The story has been updated.
