Commercial Real Estate Blog

Leveling the Playing Field So You Get the Best Deal

Sublease Listing in Richardson

  ***Update:  Sublease is off the market.*** Our client recently relocated their offices (and combined several) and now need to sublease their Richardson office space.  Kindly take a look at our flyer here and enjoy a 360 degree virtual tour as well.  This...

Open Office Dead??

Is the open office dead?  Or just evolving?  One of our favorite interior design firms wrote a short article showing how an open office can easily meet a 6-foot separation for employees.  They also discuss other issues to help create a healthier office environment. ...

Rent Relief Request Template

After writing our March 17, 2020 blog post titled Business Interruption & Rent Relief, we recorded two podcasts on the same subject. Many discussions followed with clients and friends asking for help in the actual implementation of the advice we provided. The...

Business Survival in Crisis

We’ve all heard more about COVID-19 than any of us ever wanted to hear, so I’m not going to comment on how to avoid the virus or how often you should bath yourself and everything you own in Purell. Instead, I’m simply going to ask, how will this crisis affect your...

Business Interruption & Rent Relief

Sorry this will be so long, but over the last couple days, we have received several inquiries from clients asking how to go about seeking rent relief from their landlords. Their businesses have no income due to shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic and they won’t...

Confessions of a Recovering Landlord

We've begun a new podcast entitled, Confessions of a Recovering Landlord. Wait, before you write it off as a boring old monologue, let me tell you that it is filled with delightful dialogue and cheerful (?) banter as Jan is on it with me, grilling, I mean questioning...

How Would Your Lease Respond in a Crisis?

Distributed work force – the latest euphemism for working from home…although it could include some people working from home, some in an office and some in an executive suite or coworking space.  However, many companies are choosing to do this and in today’s world of...

CRMs – Love Affair/Terrorist Plot?

Ok, perhaps I was a bit dramatic, but come on, have you ever found THE perfect Customer Relationship Manager program?!?  CRMs are great and provide lots of ways to manipulate your content, but I’ve yet to find the perfect one. We recently transitioned from a...

Workplace Safety

I just got another alert on my phone – two people killed on a college campus and another injured.  Am I embarrassed to say that these events simply don’t register as they once did?  It wasn’t a particularly high body count, right?!?  Can you believe I’m even typing...

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe

You cannot turn on the TV or check any of your social media feeds without reading about Kobe Bryant and his untimely, very sad, fatal helicopter accident.  The fact his daughter and others were with him makes it just that much worse.  The void this accident has...

Is A Tenant Rep Really Necessary?

People sometimes ask us if hiring a tenant representation broker is really necessary, especially when they’ve already selected the building where they wish to lease space. They’ve already spoken to the leasing agent and even seen their ideal space.   Let me ask...

DFW Office Market Still Rocking

Costar, a commercial real estate research and listing service, reported that the Dallas Fort Worth office market closed out 2019 with 5.2 million square feet (SF) of net absorption which is the highest since 2014 which had 6.9 million SF of net absorption. Net...

8 Reasons to Buy a Building Instead of Leasing

Most companies lease the office and warehouse space they occupy.  There are many reasons for that:  don't want to be a landlord; don't have the down payment; want to keep the money in the business where it will earn a higher return than in a real estate investment;...

Estoppel? Condition or gift??

Estoppel.  Sounds like a medical condition you don't want to talk about in polite company.  Or something you'd need a medicated cream to clear up.  Think of the embarrassment of checking out at the grocery store when the cashier gives you that knowing smirk. But an...

Get Out While the Gettin’s Good

Get Out While the Gettin’s Good With over 1,000 office buildings on the market for sale today, the DFW market has reached a 5-year high in property owners trying to cash in on their holdings. This is according to Costar, a commercial real estate research firm. And...

Office Market Vacancy Rate

Dallas Fort Worth has always been known for its low cost of living, ease of doing business and highly skilled labor pool. Its central location, great airport and low tax burden for both individuals and companies make it a very attractive place to do business. So its...

Office Rents Rising

A rising tide lifts all boats. So the saying goes. But is it true in office building rents? Definitely. As demand for office space increases, landlords start testing the waters by increasing rents. Eventually, that demand and those rents get to a point that justify...

WeWork – Will it Work in a Downturn?

We're updating this blog in light of a story that is currently in the news. WeWork is considering the anticipated valuation of its IPO...that it could be too high. Skepticism is rising over the business model. One of the concerns is what we pointed out here a little...

Feeling Cramped in the Office?

Have you ever noticed how food manufacturers sometimes shrink the size of your favorite candy bar or bag of chips? The price stays the same, of course, but you just don't get as much. Well, offices have been getting smaller for a long time at the same time that prices...

Another One Bites the Dust

The Houston Chronicle reported on Friday that yet another tenant-rep-only firm has sold to a full-service firm. Jackson & Cooksey has been a commercial real estate firm solely focused on representing users (tenants & buyers) of commercial real estate since 1982. They...

Wal-Mart – IT??

Do you think of IT when you hear Wal-Mart? Most people don’t, but Wal-Mart has an emerging technologies office which makes sense when you consider that Amazon and other online retailers are likely taking a chunk out of its sales. Wal-Mart already has 2,000...

US Office Vacancy Lowest in 10 Years

According to a report produced by Transwestern, office vacancies in the US as a whole are at their lowest in 10 years. That's pretty amazing when you consider that they also report that 70.7 million square feet (SF) of new construction has been started during that...

A Ban on Dual Agency Fails…For Now

As you probably know, at REATA, we only represent users - companies that lease or buy office and warehouse space. We won't take landlord listings for lease because it has the potential to create conflicts of interest. Furthermore, we don't think that real estate...

Tax Reform – Another 1986?

Our government is talking about major tax reform. That will make you really nervous if you were in the commercial real estate business in the 1980’s. You will remember how a Republican president signed into law a tax law which killed our industry for 10 years. Sure,...

Working from Home – Does It Work?

One of the pioneers of allowing employees to work from home is IBM. They started doing it in 1979 and had 2,000 IBMer's working from home within 4 years. By 2009, 40% of their 386,000 employees in 173 countries didn't have an office. IBM even sold buildings which they...

Are You Safe At Work?

The news of late has been nothing less than tragic – disgruntled employees and/or former employees returning to their work sites and opening fire on a specific person or just a crowd in general. No place appears to be immune anymore: churches, offices, industrial work...

West End SubLease

Please view our beautiful new sublease listing in the West End of Dallas, Texas. Sublet Flyer Bob Gibbons is a Real Estate Advisor & Tenant Advocate with REATA Commercial Realty, Inc. which is a tenant advisory firm based in Plano, Texas. Bob serves companies in...

Playing Russian Roulette With Corporate Real Estate

I'm often asked, "Why shouldn't I work with the big corporate real estate concerns in lieu of a boutique agency?" Actually, there are a lot of answers but my friend, Walt Batansky, CFO of Avocat Group, answered the biggest question in his eloquent essay entitled...

Dual Agency – New Court Ruling

If you know me, you know that I am always talking about conflicts of interest and how the commercial real estate (CRE) industry is unfairly slanted in favor of the landlord. One of the big reasons for that is that companies that lease space usually only sign a lease...

Validation??

I had to laugh when I read the newspaper a few days ago. Steve Brown is the real estate editor for the Dallas Morning News. He wrote an article several weeks ago which prompted me to write a blog post in response. So when I saw his latest article entitled "D-FW tops...

Office Utilization Far Less Than Expected

Bisnow.com had an article on their website today which started by citing a study by the Harvard Business Review (HBR). It said that "office utilization peaks at 42% on any day, forcing an overhaul of how efficient spaces are designed." The article goes on to talk...

Need Flexibility in Your Office Space?

So you need an office space quickly, but need flexibility and don't want to be tied into a long-term lease. What are your options? There are times when flexibility is critical to an organization – entering a new market, acquiring or merging with other companies,...

Appointment to Plano P & Z

I recently had the honor of being appointed to the Planning & Zoning Commission for the City of Plano. Mayor Harry LaRosiliere swore me in on October 10, 2016. The opportunity to serve the City of Excellence in this new capacity is a unique and humbling challenge, and...

3D Printing a Building?

Fascinating building going on in Dubai. In 17 days the Dubai Future Foundation printed out a building. The Associated Press described it as “looking like a mashup of a Jetsons abode and an Apple Store”. The building is located between the twin Emirates Towers and...

ATR Conference

I just got back from Denver where the bi-annual Association of Tenant Representatives (ATR) conference was held. ATR is a group of independent commercial real estate brokers exclusively focused on serving the needs of companies and non-profits in their real estate...

Dealmakers Breakfast

This morning I had the pleasure of attending the Dealmakers Breakfast at the Park Cities Club. Our guest speaker was a hometown hero albeit from many years ago - Chuck Hixson of Westdale (www.westdale.com), a real estate investment company. Westdale is the largest...

Record Setting Office Rents

Recently, the Dallas Morning News wrote that office rents in the Uptown area of Dallas have passed $50/square foot, which is a new record for North Texas. Driven by corporate relocations, along with other employment gains office space is in high demand. Jones Lang...

Construction Costs

Not a great topic around developers, building owners and tenants, these days! Labor costs have increased but DFW has one of the lowest increases in the country. Meanwhile costs of goods have increased significantly. Click here to read the entire article and view the...

Downtown Dallas Displaced Workers Accommodated

Last week was one of the most horrific for all Dallasites in recent memory. But watching people help other people went a long way to helping restore faith in humanity. Police closed down a major area of downtown Dallas displacing many companies and their workers. Six...

How will Brexit affect US Real Estate

Several industry titans have weighed in with their take on what the fallout will be from Brexit regarding US real estate. Obviously, uncertainty has affected the markets negatively but the UK's decision to leave the EU could mean some initial positive upticks for the...

PlanoFirst Quarterly Luncheon Series

During a conversation with Mayor Harry LaRosiliere & Fehmi Karahan, Plano's mayor stated that he would build a wall, separating Plano and Frisco, at SH121 and make Frisco pay for it! If you missed today's luncheon, you missed a lot. Bob Gibbons is a Real Estate...

Glimpse at final CityLine project

KDC has released a rendering of what Richardson's CityLine project will look like completed. Also in this article is a timelapse video of the building of the State Farm campus - two things I really enjoy viewing and thought you might as well! To view both items, click...

Granite Park – 6th Tower to Break Ground Soon

Fannie Mae will be consolidating its three locations in North Texas to Granite Park's newest office tower, which is slated to be completed October, 2017. Granite has two more high rise office buildings in the hopper - "we started out here with one building and now we...

No Landline?

I remember a while back (OK, years ago) my kids told me to call someone's cell phone in lieu of their home phone as NO ONE answered those anymore. Yes, I admit, that home phones are relegated to phone solicitations primarily; however, businesses? In an article...

Loving Traffic?

Do you love traffic as much as I do?!? Yup, thought so! Texas Department of Transportation has earmarked $1.3B to ease traffic congestion according to a recent article in BisNow.com. The article has a fascinating map showing solutions for the TexaPlex triangle (DFW to...

US Office Vacancies Drop to New Low

Vacancy rates for US office properties fell to a new 7-year low of 13.9% by the end of 2015 according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield as reported by Bisnow. 700,000 new office jobs nationally helped spur the absorption rate which totaled 81.7 million square...