Las Colinas’ oldest office building in Irving, Texas sold

Built in the 1970s, the three-story building was originally Allstate’s corporate campus

200 West John Carpenter Freeway and Rosewood Property's Rick Perdue (LoopNet, Rosewood Property Co.)
200 West John Carpenter Freeway and Rosewood Property's Rick Perdue (LoopNet, Rosewood Property Co.)

The first office ever built in the huge Las Colinas development in Irving has been sold.

The three-story building at 200 W. John Carpenter Freeway was the original construction in what is now a bustling commercial district filled with high-rise offices and surrounded by corporate offices and retail space, luxury hotels, townhomes, single-family units, golf courses and lakes. The 18-acre property across the freeway from Irving’s Music Factory entertainment center and the Irving Convention Centerhas already been demolished for a new development, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Dallas’ Rosewood Property Co. just bought the building with plans for redevelopment for the former Allstate campus. The sale, marketed by JLL, also included an adjoining vacant property.

Originally called El Ranchito de Las Colinas, or “the Little Ranch of the Hills,” Las Colinas was developed in 1972 by cattle ranching millionaire Ben H. Carpenter. It was one of the first planned communities in the United States and was once the largest mixed-use development in the South.

Read more

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

When Dallas developer Ben Carpenter sold Allstate the land for the building in 1973, Las Colinas only existed on paper.

When the office opened three years later, the region was still mostly vacant land and tumbleweeds. The Associates Corp. and General Motors soon joined Allstate as the first businesses to locate in the fledgling project.

Today, ​​more than 125,000 people work in Las Colinas and surrounding business districts who use its very own light-rail system to its many commercial spaces, private country clubs, gated enclaves, parks, and landscaped water courses.

“We worked closely with the city of Irving and the surrounding neighborhood to bring a dynamic mixed-use development to Las Colinas that fits the needs and the vision of the community,” Rosewood’s Tim Harris told DMN in an email. “We look forward to unveiling the plan more specifically as we move through the development process.”

[DMN] — Maddy Sperling