RMR Group Spends on AT&T Foundry Renovations in Plano

AT&T Foundry in Plano is poised for an upgrade.

The RMR Group, which owns 2900 West Plano Parkway, is spending $8.6 million to upgrade the 86,000-square-foot space leased by AT&T, according to a state filing. That works out to $100 per square foot.

Construction is expected to start in April and be completed by September.

The 200,000-square-foot office building was delivered in 1998. The property’s taxable value was $19.1 million last year, appraisal district records show.

Corporate America’s push to return to the office has emphasized the flight-to-quality trend in the office market.

The effort to lure employees back to work with top-of-the-line amenities can be observed in recent deals like Lockton Companies’ 53,000-square-foot lease at Granite Park 6, a Plano office property that was delivered in 2023.

Meanwhile, operators of older inventory, like 2900 West Plano Parkway, are under pressure to compete with new deliveries.

That’s just one segment of the Dallas-Fort Worth office market, which had 52.8 million square feet of unused office space in November. The Metroplex ranked third in the country for office vacancy, behind New York and Chicago.

AT&T Foundry is a network of “innovation centers” that aim to incubate new ideas in a startup environment. In addition to Plano, there are locations in Atlanta; Palo Alto, California; and Ra’anana, Israel. AT&T Foundry opened a Plano office, its first hub, in 2011. The company opened a second Foundry facility in Plano in 2013, one floor above the original location.