The cable TV, Internet and phone service provider has leased 78,000 square feet in the 240,000-square-foot office building, said Chris Taylor, principal at Capstar Commercial Real Estate Services, which handles leasing at the building. More than 350 Time Warner employees are expected to work in the building within a year.
Time Warner will join STMicroelectronics NV, a computer chip maker moving its Americas headquarters from Carrollton into 100,000 square feet in 750 Canyon in April. About 300 STMicro employees will make the move.
Both leases were signed in December and were among the largest transactions signed in North Texas in 2009.
“We’ve had two high-quality, high-credit companies make the commitment to 750 Canyon,” Taylor said. “We closed several large deals in the fourth quarter, and we think these are positive signs that the market is stabilizing and companies feel like they can start making long-term commitments again and get on with business.”
Capstar closed on 450,000 square feet worth of lease transactions during the last three months of 2009, Taylor said.
Gary Underwood, vice president of communications for Time Warner Cable, said the building will house the company’s fast-growing commercial services group. The group, which serves business customers and hotels and apartment complexes, has been operating out of other buildings throughout North Texas, he said.
In all, about 360 Time Warner employees will work at 750 Canyon within the year, Underwood said. He said the move won’t affect retail payment centers, call centers, technical operations centers, or other customer-related functions.
“Our goal is to bring together some of our offices that have been spread out across the Metroplex,” Underwood said. “This positions us for growth in the market.”
The approximately 300 STMicro jobs at 750 Canyon will be administrative, service, engineering, marketing, finance and legal positions, according to company spokesman Michael Markowitz. Move-in will begin around April 1, he said.
STMicroelectronics will use the office for its Americas Region headquarters.
The company chose 750 Canyon due to its proximity to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the efficiency of the 50,000-square-foot floorplates and easy access to State Highway 121, which is convenient for the employee base, Markowitz said.
“This facility better suits our size,” he said. “The old facility had a large manufacturing space that we no longer need.”
STMicro, the world’s fifth-largest semiconductor company, sells chips to companies such as Nokia, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and Nintendo. In 2007, the company announced the eventual closure of its plant at 1310 Electronics Drive in Carrollton as part of a push to move manufacturing to areas of the world where it could be done less expensively.
‘Strength of ownership’
Time Warner and STM’s leases take 750 Canyon to about 75% leased, Taylor said. The quoted lease rate is $21 per square foot, plus electricity. The five-story building sits at S.H. 121 and Canyon Drive in Coppell.
Taylor said the building owner’s investment of about $2.5 million into improvements — including extensive renovations to the lobby, elevators and common areas, and the addition of a fitness center and conference center — helped lure the two new tenants. The building is owned by CB Richard Ellis Investors as a CBRE Strategic Partners U.S. IV fund asset. CB Richard Ellis Investors is an independently operated affiliate of CB Richard Ellis Group.
“The strength of the ownership gave these clients the comfort level to make long-term commitments to the building,” Taylor said.
Peter Danna, Mike Cleary and Meredith LaPier of CB Richard Ellis Inc. represented Time Warner Cable, and Andrew Taguwa and Tom McCarthy of Jones Lang LaSalle were the tenant brokers for STMicroelectronics. Capstar’s Taylor and Rodney Helm represented the building’s ownership in both leases.
Dallas Business Journal by Bill Hethcock