Bank of America downsize is latest move favoring Uptown park

Bank of America plans to leave its 38-year-old namesake building in downtown Dallas for amenity-filled digs in Uptown. The firm is the latest financial institution to settle near Klyde Warren Park.

The planned move to Parkside Uptown, expected to open at 1919 Woodall Rodgers Freeway in 2027, will cut Bank of America’s office footprint in the central business district by about half, said Steve Triolet of Partners Real Estate.

Bank of America will occupy 238,000 square feet, about half of the 30-story building — to be renamed Bank of America Parkside — that KDC and Pacific Elm Properties are developing in partnership with landowner Miyama USA Texas.

The bank is chiseling away at its office space in Dallas-Fort Worth. It occupied about 670,000 square feet during its peak tenancy in Bank of America Plaza, at 901 Main Street, about 20 years ago. Now it leases about 539,000 square feet there, Triolet said. 

In May, Bank of America exited Gatalyn Commons Building C, a five-story building it leased at 2375 North Glenville Drive in Richardson. That 215,000-square-foot building is now undergoing renovations and being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield.

Bank of America has also ditched most of its space at 6400 Legacy Drive in Plano, formerly the Countrywide Home Loans building, which it sold to Capital Commercial in 2019.

Other financial institutions are downsizing in Dallas-Fort Worth. 

Chase Bank is moving out of its namesake building, the former Chase Tower at 2200 Ross Avenue, which owner Fortis has renamed Dallas Arts Tower.

Chase is taking 132,000 square feet at Hunt Consolidated’s building at 1900 North Akard Street, also overlooking Klyde Warren Park. That cuts about 62,000 square feet from Chase’s office square footage in the CBD.

Besides that, Goldman Sachs trimmed about 100,000 square feet from the office campus it has under construction, also near the park.

“You’re going to have down here, within a couple of blocks, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs,” Triolet said. “They’re all right here around the park.”

Resi conversion

The 1.3 million-square-foot Bank of America Plaza, owned by a German investment group, is 70 percent occupied. The departure of its anchor tenant would bring its occupancy down to more like 30 percent.

The first thought on everyone’s mind is whether the Bank of America Plaza — built in 1985 and an icon of the Dallas skyline — could be converted to residential.

The 72-story building is a good candidate because of its relatively small floor plates and excellent views, Triolet said. But with six or seven other office-to-resi conversions already in the pipeline in downtown Dallas, he questions whether the submarket has enough demand for high-end multifamily to warrant such an endeavor.

“The chances they will be able to backfill that space are slim-to-none,” Triolet said. “But it’s a little ways out before they vacate, so the owners do have some time.”

The ownership group has held it since about 1998, and there is no CMBS loan on the building. Triolet said he couldn’t find any record of debt on it, although it most likely has some.

“It is distressed,” he said. “Like most buildings downtown, it’s becoming less-and-less occupied.”

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