Continental Battery Is Moving Out of Dallas

The “headquarters of headquarters” lured another company office this month.

Continental Battery Systems, a battery products distributor, announced on Friday that it plans to move its headquarters from Dallas to the neighboring suburb of Irving, the Dallas Business Journal reported.

At present, the company occupies suite 600 at 8585 North Stemmons Freeway, a pair of 11-story buildings owned by Dallas-based developer Ricchi Group, according to public records. Continental Battery signed a 10-year lease at 750 West John Carpenter Freeway in Irving, a 12-story building owned by Austin-based Capital Commercial Investments, the publication reported. Continental will move into a 25,000-square-foot space in the 314,700-square-foot building this summer.

The City of Irving approved a $75,000 economic incentives package on March 26 to tempt the company. Under the conditions of the agreement, Continental must create or relocate at least 75 new jobs with an average annual salary of at least $119,000 by the end of the year and keep them for the next 10 years, according to the outlet. In addition, Continental must increase the appraised tax value of its new suite by at least $500,000 by Jan. 1, 2027.

Capital Commercial Investments bought the Irving office building formerly called CVS Health Tower in 2024 for $23 million, or $73 per square foot, from Atlanta-based Piedmont Realty Trust, which paid $49.6 million, or $157 per square foot, for it in 2016, according to Bisnow.

While North Texas leads the nation in business relocations, companies are generally avoiding Dallas itself. Recent leases show a strong preference for northern suburbs among out-of-state movers and locals alike, with KFC, TIAA and Public Storage numbering among companies that have moved to Collin County in the last two years.

Longtime Downtown Dallas fixture AT&T dealt a particularly powerful blow to the weak urban core when it announced plans in January to move to Plano, opening a 2 million-square-foot vacuum that amounts to almost 6 percent of all space in the Downtown submarket.

The building Continental plans to leave is near Loop 12 on the northwest side of Dallas, not in downtown. The building’s LoopNet listing boasts a view of the Irving skyline.

The City of Irving styles itself the “headquarters of headquarters.” The city is home to a high concentration of company offices, including eight Fortune 500 companies, according to its website. Prominent corporations based in Irving include heavy machinery company Caterpillar, Kelly-Moore Paints and, most recently, Bimbo Bakeries USA.

— Isaiah Mitchell