Costco in line to buy North Dallas office building for $14M

A buyer is in line to acquire a North Dallas office property from a troubled Houston real estate investment trust.

Costco has agreed to pay $14.25 million for the 10-story North Central Plaza I building on Central Expressway, according to bankruptcy court filings, the Dallas Morning News reported. The seller is Hartman SPE, a unit of Silver Star Properties REIT.

The building, sitting on roughly 4 acres on the west side of Central, is adjacent to a 152,000-square-foot Costco store south of the property, which it built in 2017. Thus, Costco’s acquisition hints that the retailer could have more interest in the land than the building itself.

“I believe that the debtor is unlikely to receive a higher or better offer; the purchase agreement represents the best offer obtainable at this time and under current market conditions,” Hartman SPE president David Wheeler said in the bankruptcy filing.

Costco has not revealed specific plans for the building.

For Hartman SPE, the sale aligns with its strategy to offload its office and retail assets to focus on self-storage investments. 

After a legal dispute with its founder Allen Hartman, Hartman SPE filed for bankruptcy protection with debts exceeding $200 million. The bankruptcy proceedings aim to facilitate an orderly sale of assets to settle outstanding debts, refinance senior indebtedness and maximize capital for redeployment into the self-storage asset class.

Apart from the office tower, Hartman owns various properties in the Dallas area, including Gateway Tower, Three Forest Plaza office tower, Skylark Tower and shopping centers like Richardson Heights and Promenade North, the outlet said.

The bankruptcy court has already approved the sale of a different property, Gateway Tower, at 8111 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, for $14.1 million to Hamilton Commercial LLC. 

—Quinn Donoghue 

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