Some big North Texas real estate deals still in the works

Before the champagne corks are tossed and celebrations about 2013 end, it might be good to look at what was left undone from last year.

No doubt, 2013 was one of North Texas’ best years for real estate in memory. The Dallas area is the envy of the nation for commercial real estate, with investors lining up to buy properties here.

But not all the deals that were in the works were finalized before the year ended. Some of those transactions are carrying over into 2014.

That includes four major downtown building sales.

The 34-story KPMG Centre on Harwood Street has been up for grabs since 2012 when lenders foreclosed on the 1980s skyscraper. With a huge vacancy rate and in need of remodeling, the bronze glass high-rise will need deep pockets and a patient new owner to turn the corner.

Another large downtown office block, the 32-story One Main Place on Main Street, is starting the year on the foreclosure list. Lenders who hold $69 million in debt on the big tower have been posting the property for foreclosure monthly since last summer.

In the meantime, HFF LP has been trying to sell the troubled debt. There have been lots of lookers, but so far the ownership of the tower hasn’t changed.

A downtown skyscraper that’s been for sale for several months is still pending resolution. The 49-story 1700 Pacific tower is attracting lots of buyer interest but a transaction didn’t get wrapped up by the close of 2013.

And the 60-story Fountain Place, the big green glass rocket on the northwest side of downtown, didn’t make it on to the sale list until the end of the year. A purchase of that building is probably a few months away.

That’s probably also the case with the huge Solana complex in Westlake, too. Lenders who hold almost $400 million in debts on the development northwest of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport have been soliciting offers for the business park.

Several major North Texas office leasing transactions that started in 2013 will drag into the new year before completion.

Santander Consumer USA is negotiating a move that would bring as many as 1,000 workers downtown. The international banking and finance firm could rent as much as 400,000 square feet in the Thanksgiving Tower on Elm Street.

But first Santander has to complete the deal with that building’s new owner and lock in economic incentives to make the move happen.

A big suburban office lease that’s been on track for Dallas North Tollway is still in play, property brokers say.

Online retailing giant Amazon was close to an agreement for a major block of office space on the tollway near State Highway 121. But after months of talks, real estate brokers say Amazon is now looking further south on the tollway to fill its office needs.

Most of the more than one dozen office projects that started in North Texas in 2013 won’t be finished until later this year. The good news is about half of the total office space in development in the D-FW area is already rented.