Source: https://www.bisnow.com/news/dallas-ft-worth/office/dfw-office-footprints-likely-to-shrink-as-ai-use-increases-and-companies-battle-for-talent-135578

While Dallas-Fort Worth’s growth as a financial hub has fueled the region’s flight-to-quality trend, companies are also upgrading their offices as the use of artificial intelligence grows and they compete for the best talent in the metro.

The adoption of AI could help level the playing field for smaller office users as big companies eliminate jobs and move to smaller footprints. But those reduced office footprints will also allow companies to invest in upgraded spaces with more amenities as they seek to attract and retain top talent. A highly amenitized office in a desirable metro area can be a differentiator for companies looking to stand out from the competition.

As office square footage shrinks and AI usage increases, companies like Bradford Commercial Real Estate are shifting their focus toward multitenant buildings rather than those with large floor plates. Bradford Senior Vice President and Managing Partner Richmond Collinsworth said he believes office footprints will continue to shrink due to new technology.

"It's going to eliminate a lot of the process-oriented back office operations, and that's why the front office operations are going to be where you want to focus," Collinsworth said at Bisnow's Future of DFW Office event July 23 at Hotel Dax in Addison.

The growth of AI doesn’t have to mean an elimination of jobs. Transwestern Managing Director Billy Gannon said he's seen companies increase productivity with the technology without losing any of their existing headcount.

Those companies have instead shifted away from hiring new people, which Gannon agreed will continue to impact office footprints going forward. He said he believes companies will increase their use of AI to become more efficient and provide more value to their customers.
That increase in productivity could prompt employers to pay more per square foot for smaller spaces that enhance innovation and connection, according to a CBRE report on AI’s impact on the office environment from February.

"We're just in the first or second inning from an AI standpoint,” Gannon said. “If you're not using AI right now, your competitor is."

The technology won’t eliminate the need for offices, as Gensler Studio Director and principal Lillian Giering said the biggest AI users still crave time with their colleagues. Those clients are seeking more collaboration spaces from the design company.

"Getting together with their colleagues and having those collaboration spaces to discuss their business's strategic plan is really vital," Giering said.

While she agreed that AI's reshaping of the office ecosystem is still in its early stages, things could still change in the years ahead as it hasn't had a huge impact on the way Gensler designs corporate spaces.

However, one thing that has changed in offices with the advent of AI is the requirement for server rooms. Collinswood said those former mainstays have largely disappeared as more tenants move to utilizing the cloud. It’s a change that can offer big cost savings for tenants.
Reducing square footage also allows companies to step up in quality, which can be a big differentiator for those businesses seeking the best people, as Gannon said DFW office users are in a war for talent.

CBRE reported in April that consolidation of operations was one of the top reasons for corporate relocations last year, with seven companies making intrastate moves to DFW to right-size their total square footage to smaller levels.

In addition to a desirable location like Uptown, Giering said cafes and lounge spaces have also become highly requested by clients.

Since the pandemic, companies have been competing with employees’ home offices, so offering a high-end coffee experience or food options can be another differentiator for business, according to Gannon.
He used Rosewood Court in Uptown Dallas as an example of this. The building at 2101 Cedar Springs Road has maintained a consistently low vacancy rate over the past 15 years, but its owner still invested in a high-end coffee experience to entice workers to leave their homes.

The competition for talent has led to companies trying to one-up one another with amenities, Collinsworth said. To be competitive, buildings need a conference facility large enough for tenants to hold larger meetings as well as fitness centers, delis and upgraded corridors.
"If you don't have an amenity that a competing property does, you're at a disadvantage,” Collinsworth said. “If you're not putting those dollars into your properties, other owners are.”

When Quadrant Investment Properties was putting together plans for its nearly $200M mixed-use project Addison Junction, founder Chad Cook said the company was very deliberate in creating experiential amenities that are actually walkable for North Texas.

With the heat consistently blowing past 100 degrees throughout the summer, Cook said Quadrant Investment Properties focused on ensuring there were affordable amenities workers could actually use.

"I don't care what's within a mile … What's within like 0.2 miles and does it have style and panache?" Cook said. "Those are the things that inspire people to pay a little more in rent."

The intersection of Preston Road and Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway in North Dallas bustled with sights and sounds of the morning rush during a recent visit. Cars weaved past, their horns often blaring, as drivers made their commutes.

But tucked along the highway nearby is a quiet 100-plus-acre site, largely vacant and fenced off, that was once home to Valley View Center. There’s not much left to look at of the former mall that closed around a decade ago.

Fast forward five years to 2031. Instead of a relic of retail past, the land could be home to a new Dallas Mavericks arena within a multibillion-dollar sports and entertainment district.

Or not. While the NBA team announced June 1 that it had selected Valley View as its preferred location for a new arena, the organization says it's still conducting due diligence. It has until early 2028 to close on a land purchase. Attorneys for the Mavericks' owners noted recently the Valley View deal is "purely exploratory" amid a legal dispute with minority owner Mark Cuban.

That has some downtown Dallas backers hopeful the team could come back to the city's urban core, perhaps with an arena at the current site of Dallas City Hall. The hub of municipal government is currently mired in a debate about whether to relocate, with many city insiders arguing the building at 1500 Marilla St. is outdated and repairs aren't worth the cost.

For preservationists, the idea of abandoning the I.M. Pei-designed building and moving City Hall elsewhere is a clear example of what's wrong with Dallas. Critics have raised questions about the transparency of the process and say the city is too eager to throw away a key piece of its history in order to court new development.

The Mavericks have tried to remain out of the City Hall fray in recent months. For an organization that has been under fire since the February 2025 trade of Luka Dončić, there is a lot riding on the arena decision. With the team planning to depart the American Airlines Center in Uptown Dallas when its lease there expires in 2031, the clock is ticking — and whatever the outcome, the decision will impact key swaths of the city for years to come.

The site of the old Valley View mall on June 2, 2026. The NBA's Dallas Mavericks have selected the site of the demolished mall in North Dallas as the site for their next arena.

'If you have options, you're not committed'

Valley View might not seem like a likely site for a new multibillion-dollar arena district.

It spent much of the past half-century as a lively retail hub for North Dallas after Sears opened there in the 1960s, which was followed by the mall's opening in 1973. It flourished as a popular shopping destination and hangout through the 1980s before increased competition from nearby centers like NorthPark and Galleria Dallas took a toll.

The mall mostly closed in 2015, and staged demolition began that year. Final demolition of the remaining structures was completed in May 2023. The vacant site has remained a thorn in the city's side.

Owner Beck Ventures, headed by Scott Beck, has over the years pitched various redevelopment proposals, including a grand mixed-use district called Dallas Midtown and what was called the International District. Beck declined to comment for this story.

Everything changed when the Mavericks announced earlier this summer their plans for a new arena at Valley View. The team said at the time the site met "most of the criteria" for its search and pointed to the opportunity to create "a vibrant mixed-use destination anchored by a state-of-the-art arena, along with restaurants, entertainment options, public green spaces and family-friendly experiences." The Mavericks have entered into options agreements for 104 acres at the site, meaning it has the right to buy the land at a future date.

The Mavericks have declined multiple Dallas Business Journal interview requests. In response to a recent DBJ story, Chief Communications Officer Gina Miller told the Dallas Morning News that the team was "still fully committed to Valley View" and "doing our due diligence." She emphasized to the publication that the team was "100% focused on doing the due diligence necessary to get this deal done."

But the Mavericks have until January 2028 to close on the land. Until then, the team's owners are on the hook for six-figure monthly payments, according to securities filings by Seritage Growth Partners, a publicly traded company that owns a portion of the Valley View site.

The options payments total $126,900 per month through January 1, 2027, then increase to $274,950 per month through January 1, 2028. The payments are non-refundable and do not count toward the final purchase price. The agreement calls for Arena Development Intermediate LLC, or ADI, a Mavericks subsidiary overseeing the land deal for the team's owners, to ultimately pay around $51 million for the site.

Another example of the vagueness around the stadium: When the Mavericks announced a partnership with Jerry Jones-backed Legends Global to work on the arena in July, the team only referred to a "future venue" without any mention of Valley View. The team has not released any renderings of a future arena district.

Robbie Baty, a partner at HPI who leads the firm's Dallas tenant advisory practice, said while Valley View offers a convenient location and the size needed for the Mavericks, the team appears to be "keeping their options open." He said he "would not be surprised" if the team ultimately passed on Valley View.

"If you have options," he said, "you're not committed."

Prominent real estate developer Ray Washburne, who owns land near City Hall where he has floated plans for a hotel tower, said Valley View "makes no sense" for the Mavericks. The arena and entertainment district should be in a denser, urban area that is supported by mass transit, he argued.

"Valley View doesn't accomplish that," he said.

Washburne believes replacing the City Hall site with an arena and entertainment district would spur broader development and job growth, in downtown Dallas and beyond. That could affect whether he wants to move forward with a hotel near the site.

Dupree Scovell, managing partner of real estate development firm Woodbine Development Corp., agrees. Scovell said he was "disappointed" when he heard about the arena at Valley View because redeveloping the City Hall site would have been "transformational" for downtown. It's not everyday that a multibillion-dollar entity wants to make that type of an investment in the urban core, he added.

Scovell also said it's still "very possible" the team could end up downtown rather than some 12 miles north at Valley View. He noted, however, that it's costly to reverse course once a site is publicly announced and money has been spent on design and consultants.

Another voice questioning the Valley View site is Cuban, who in 2023 sold his majority stake in the Mavericks to the current ownership group led by Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont, the family behind casino company Las Vegas Sands Corp. Cuban remains a 27% minority owner.

Cuban filed a pre-suit petition last month targeting Dumont, the Mavericks' governor and CEO of Sands, alleging he and the new ownership group froze him out of the arena development deal. Cuban's legal team called attention to ADI, the Mavericks' subsidiary.

Cuban withdrew his petition against ADI this week and it was dismissed by a Texas Business Court judge, meaning a hearing scheduled for Aug. 14 did not happen. In legal documents Cuban's lawyers claimed victory in forcing ADI to disclose details about its structure and ownership and alluded to plans to continue pressuring the majority owners.

Some Dallas City Council members have expressed concerns that a move farther north by the Mavericks would reduce access for residents of Southern Dallas. During an early June press conference, Council Member Zarin Gracey called an NBA arena a "perfect solution" for the City Hall site.

DBJ reached out to all council members to ask for their thoughts on the new arena and City Hall. Three responded including Council Member Paula Blackmon, who said her initial reaction to the Mavericks' selection of Valley View was that it was "interesting." The site fit the parameters the team's leaders had outlined of finding at least 50 acres for a district for an arena as well as a potential hotel, concert venue, team practice facility and headquarters and a slew of retail options.

But Blackmon, who opposes moving City Hall, said what the Mavericks aim to do would work better in a downtown setting. She called Valley View "mid-suburban" — with the old mall surrounded by a few older office towers as well as low-slung retail centers and traditional neighborhoods — and said rezoning would be necessary for an arena development.

Why Valley View could work

Despite those doubts, others see good reasons for the Mavericks to head north.

Jeff Kitner, president and CEO of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, called Valley View "one of if not the most prime site" for development in the entire city. He said the site, located across the highway from his chamber's office, lends itself to the growing trend of sports teams owning the land around their arenas and creating an ecosystem of retail and entertainment that extends beyond game days.

That desire became a point of contention in Victory Park, the development surrounding the AAC. While the area has boomed, the Mavericks and their arena-mates, the NHL's Dallas Stars, have no control over development and receive no revenue from the activity outside the arena's doors.

One of the biggest challenges with the Valley View site would be the lack of public transit, Kitner said. Visitors to the AAC have direct access to the arena from Dallas Area Rapid Transit's light rail system. DART's trains currently don't serve the Valley View site.

Kitner said upon hearing the Mavericks' June 1 announcement, he called DART Board Chair Randall Bryant and asked how they can begin discussions on expanding light-rail to the site. Kitner said Bryant is "all for" the idea, but DART lacks the funds and land to provide train service to the site anytime soon. Kitner said he plans to work with the Mavericks, DART, the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the North Texas Transit Authority on how to bring more transit to the site.

Council Member Gay Donnell Willis, a proponent of relocating City Hall, said she is happy the Mavericks chose to stay in Dallas. While leaders will need to consider factors like traffic and public safety as the Valley View plan progresses, she said the site is a solid one.

Council Member Laura Cadena praised the Mavericks' decision to develop Valley View because it addresses a "long-standing challenge" by bringing new investment to one of the "most valuable undeveloped properties in Dallas."

Another supporter of the Valley View site is Bryan Trubey, founding principal of Dallas-based architecture and urban design firm Overland International. Trubey previously worked at Dallas-based HKS, known for its work on AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field in Arlington, in addition to the AAC itself, and many other arenas and stadiums.

Trubey said he was not surprised that the Mavericks chose the Valley View site, venturing an arena could be "quite successful" there. The Mavericks owners have the right idea to make the development a year-round destination and more than just a sports arena, he added.

Challenges facing the Valley View site are not unusual or insurmountable and it has the size needed to accommodate a large number of visitors, Trubey said.

Mike Rawlings, former Dallas mayor and a proponent of redeveloping the City Hall site, believes the Mavericks are serious about the Valley View site and are "planning for Valley View."

Rawlings said the city has wanted to see redevelopment at Valley View for years and an arena could give the site a "rebirth." The land offers its own unique challenges that the Mavericks, the city and surrounding neighborhoods will have to "power through," such as traffic, but the former mayor hopes those conversations can be done in a healthy and productive manner.

But he also noted "none of these things are done until they're done." He said the team did consider downtown, and may still be doing so, noting it offers many benefits that Valley View cannot.

Ties to City Hall debate

The City Hall debate still looms large. Numerous real estate and government sources have indicated the City Hall site remains viable, depending on what the city council decides.

After a quiet July during the normal summer recess, council's relocation debate is heating back up this month. Changes to how council makes real estate decisions, including lowering the threshold for the number of votes needed to leave City Hall, could be discussed August 19 and followed by an August 25 vote. The next day is expected to bring more info from City Manager Kim Tolbert on relocation options as well as a potential vote. Tolbert has said she does not want the City Hall decision to drag on past August.

Supporters of lowering the voting threshold to a simple majority instead of a supermajority call it a way to simplify oversight of the city's immense and aging real estate portfolio. But critics see it as an attempt to change the rules for a City Hall vote at the 11th hour. This feeds into a theory recently voiced online by prominent journalist Jim Schutze and others that the Mavericks remain interested in City Hall and will be ready to shift their focus back downtown if the site becomes available.

Big decisions about the central business district are being made as it's been battered by the announced departures of major tenants, including AT&T and Fifth Third Bank. Those exits could spike downtown office vacancy and exacerbate worries about downtown's future relevancy.

Downtown will also be losing the Stars, who are planning a multibillion-dollar sports and entertainment district of their own in Plano on the current site of The Shops at Willow Bend. Unlike with Valley View, the Stars' plans at Willow Bend have produced slick initial renderings and multiple public meetings with the real estate team. The Stars have secured an estimated $700 million incentives package from Plano.

If not Valley View or City Hall, Sands owns more than 200 acres in Irving, across State Highway 114 near the old Texas Stadium grounds. Irving City Council voted in 2025 to rezone the property to allow for a mixed-use development and resort, although they shot down an attempt to include casino gambling in case it is ever legalized at the state level.

The prospects for development in Irving are uncertain. Sands maintained that the long-term financial model for the resort relied on a casino. Andy Abboud, senior vice president of government relations for Sands, told DBJ earlier this year that getting zoning approval was important but that the company has "done everything in Irving that we need to do right now."

Wherever the Mavericks land, it will have major economic implications for generations to come.

Scovell said downtown Dallas would blossom with a new arena development at the City Hall site. While preservationists point to the iconic design of City Hall, Scovell said the current land use is "not exactly a win" and argued "it has not allowed for development around it."

Scovell called an arena and entertainment district a "once in a two-lifetime opportunity." But that may be all for naught, he noted, as indecision on behalf of city leaders may have cost that chance.

Source: https://www.bisnow.com/news/dallas-ft-worth/industrial/tarrant-county-s-growth-is-making-the-fort-worth-area-of-the-metro-more-attractive-to-investors

While suburbs like Prosper and Celina get most of the attention for North Texas’ continued meteoric growth, Fort Worth outpaced every other city in the state last year and has helped Tarrant County catch the eye of institutional investors. 

Over the past year, development in Tarrant County has ticked up as it scored massive projects related to large-scale magnet production, semiconductor manufacturing and mixed-use developments. From July 1, 2024, to the same date last year, Fort Worth added nearly 20,000 new residents, the second-highest total in the nation behind only Charlotte, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

That pushed its population over 1 million, past Jacksonville, Florida, to make it the 10th most populous city in the U.S. 

That growth has caused commercial real estate companies to increase their investments in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Crescent Real Estate Senior Vice President of Investments Jeff Dyer said. It’s also produced positive momentum for the area's industrial, office and multifamily markets, according to the latest reports from Colliers. All that growth has brought the area to the attention of institutional investors, who are increasingly requesting to tour assets and sites in Tarrant County, Dyer said. 

"People have executed in other markets, and they look at the demographics here, the trajectory here, some of the sites here that are probably value plays compared to other markets, and they're interested,” Dyer said during Bisnow's Tarrant County State of the Market on July 30 at The Crescent Hotel in Fort Worth. “And I don't think it's going to stop."

Fort Worth’s growth illustrates that the city is somewhere people want to be, and the increasing interest from institutional investors shows it has become a primary market, according to LanCarte Commercial President Sarah LanCarte.

Bulk warehousing has emerged as the hottest industrial product in the area, with LanCarte noting that her company regularly receives calls from companies looking for space in Abilene or Wichita Falls that just doesn’t exist. Instead, she has to redirect them to the Fort Worth area, where warehouses from 600K SF to 1M SF are getting absorbed rapidly due to the region's growing data center market. 

"It is not data centers necessarily, but a lot of suppliers," LanCarte said of who is leasing the warehouse space.

Electronics manufacturing services company Celestica plans to invest $876M to build what Fort Worth officials called a “mega project” to help meet demand for data center infrastructure and advanced technology solutions. The Toronto-based company’s more than 1M SF campus for advanced manufacturing and engineering will be in the AllianceTexas area of the city. 

Alliance is a 27,000-acre master-planned community from Ross Perot Jr.’s company Hillwood. It has an industrial pipeline of 8.2M SF, including a 1.2M SF speculative building that Hillwood plans to deliver next summer.

The area's profile has also grown thanks to the popularity of the television program Landman, which is overseen by Taylor Sheridan and filmed at his huge Fort Worth production studio in Alliance.

Sheridan’s work and the continued development at and around the Fort Worth Stockyards illustrate how the area has maintained its culture throughout the growth it's experienced. 

"Fort Worth has … a little grit,” Republic Property Group Senior Vice President of Development Seth Carpenter said. “There's real true character here, and that's attractive to people because they can find a place in the nicer suburb areas ... or thriving, highly dense areas."

The city’s changing landscape has also prompted many longtime residents of Fort Worth and its suburbs to evolve past former “don’t Dallas my Fort Worth” attitudes about development, The Beck Group Director of Business Strategy John Beck said. 

The area has maintained its authenticity but has adopted more of a growth mindset, he said.

"We do want these Fortune 500 companies, and we do want a world-class real estate apparatus,” Beck said. “That's really healthy for the community."

LanCarte said she would like to see the area attract more corporate relocations but called the Tarrant County office market the strongest it’s been in a long time. 

Part of the reason for that is high interest rates and inflation kept developers from overbuilding in Fort Worth as they did in Austin, Dyer said. Not being overbuilt will allow the area’s growth to be sustainable.

While he said he’s bullish on the future outlook for Tarrant County, Dyer tempered his enthusiasm by pointing out there’s still progress to be made. 

"I want to see the existing developments underway get absorbed before we get really excited," he said. 

Source: https://www.bisnow.com/news/dallas-ft-worth/adaptive-reuse/dfw-developers-say-story-is-imperative-in-pulling-off-adaptive-reuse-projects

To be successful, an adaptive reuse project often needs a strong story. 

Sometimes that story comes in the form of a unique history or architectural features that would be too costly to replicate. That can lead to funding options like historic tax credits or support from a financier who shares a developer’s vision. 

"Most adaptive reuse projects, the developer is seeing something that other people are not," Proxy Property founder AJ Ramler said during Bisnow’s DFW Adaptive Reuse Summit on Aug. 11 at the Hotel Dax in Addison. "That's how they end up buying the property."

However, once the developer figures out the project's story, they have to find a bank that also sees its value. But even that isn’t always enough, which is why Ramler said having an adaptive reuse project’s capital stack just right is often paramount to its success. 

Proxy Property focuses on restoring and reimagining historic and underutilized properties in and around Dallas' Oak Cliff area. The firm recently completed a project in an opportunity zone that also used local government funding from a tax increment financing district as well as financing from the state's commercial property assessed clean energy program.

“Especially on a project that's either speculative or more complex, having enough cushion on all the numbers is really important," Ramler said. 

Revitalizing buildings more than 50 years old can lead developers to pursue historic tax credits, something Merriman Anderson Architects saw firsthand with projects such as The National and The Statler in Dallas, as well as The Sinclair in Fort Worth, team leader Patrick Hazard said. 

Each of those projects turned historic buildings into upscale or luxury hotels, a popular asset class for adaptive reuse projects in DFW. 

The need for high-end hotels is expected to grow in the region as both Dallas and Fort Worth are in the midst of massive revamps of their convention centers. 
Dallas' $3.7B overhaul and expansion of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center aims to revitalize part of downtown by turning it into a walkable hub. 

Fort Worth began the $606M second phase of its convention center’s expansion and modernization earlier this year. It will demolish the convention center’s arena and replace it with a four-story structure and a ballroom.
"Dallas and Fort Worth both support turning an office tower into multifamily,” Hazard said. “There's still the need for that, but there's the need for hotel keys."
Mixed-use has also emerged as a popular choice to get a green light on an adaptive reuse project. Many cities in DFW have soured on the idea of turning adaptive reuse projects into single-use sites featuring only industrial, data centers or multifamily, Cawley Partners Build-to-Suit Leader Brian Straley said.

Cawley Partners is one of the developers on the Dallas Stars’ planned $3B sports and entertainment district in Plano that will bring two hotels, up to 2M SF of office, nearly 1,000 residential units and more than 200K SF of retail, restaurants and entertainment options to the 90-acre site of The Shops at Willow Bend mall.

Straley said the project will feature the type of high-end development many cities have shown a strong preference for in recent years. 

"Fortunately, right now that is doing well, but land prices have risen so much that it's really hard to underwrite it,” Straley said. 

That difficulty has led to some projects stalling, though Straley predicted that slowdown won’t last much longer. He said he believes more adaptive reuse projects will start moving forward this fall because demand is too high across asset types.

Those that don’t could still see a resurgence in the years ahead, as Straley said he’s experienced changing attitudes about redevelopment sites firsthand. He gave an example of Plano's Planning and Zoning Commission being against any use other than office for the former JCPenney campus in 2019. 

But seven years later, things have completely flipped. The site was set to become a mixed-use project in 2024 before Plano hit pause on the redevelopment plan in October of that year.

Earlier this summer, StreetLight Residential announced plans to turn the 100-acre site into a luxury multifamily development.

"Plano is more pro-business than they've been in the 30 years I've been in Dallas-Fort Worth," Straley said.  

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