An Atlanta-based real estate investor has teamed up with one of the country’s largest life insurance firms to make a run at buying a downtown Dallas skyscraper.
The 60-story green-glass Fountain Place tower on Ross Avenue has been for sale since the end of last year.
Goddard Investment Group and an arm of Metropolitan Life Insurance are in talks to purchase the 1.2 million-square-foot office tower, real estate brokers say.
Goddard representatives said Friday that the company is not ready to comment on the deal.
Fountain Place, designed by I.M Pei and built in 1986, is expected to fetch close to $200 million.
Since 2011, the tower has been owned by JPMorgan Asset Management, which hired HFF LP to market the building.
The skyscraper is more than 85 percent leased. Major tenants in the tower include Tenet Healthcare, Wells Fargo Bank, Bracewell & Guiliani, Hunton & Williams and the General Services Administration.
As part of the investment deal, real estate brokers say the new owners plan to construct a large parking garage on the 1.5-acre vacant lot just north of Fountain Place.
Many of downtown’s largest buildings are adding parking as occupancy levels increase and the number of attractions downtown grows.
Fountain Place is the latest in a string of downtown Dallas skyscrapers than have attracted interest from out-of-town investors.
“The sale of Fountain Place and the timing of the sale is consistent with the numerous positive changes occurring in downtown’s urban core,” said John Crawford, CEO of the economic development group Downtown Dallas Inc.
“There are a number of investment opportunities in play, and the sale of Fountain Place and the quality of the purchasers certainly adds credibility to what we have to look forward to in downtown Dallas,” Crawford said.
Goddard Investment Group is a privately held commercial real estate firm with a track record of large deals.
It owns the 22-story St. Paul Place office tower in downtown Dallas on Ross Avenue.
And it previously owned the 53-story Heritage Plaza in downtown Houston. Goddard sold the Houston tower in 2010 to Canadian investor Brookfield Properties for $325 million.
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