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Refilling demand: Tower Lakes offices could break ground this fall

By: Molly M. Fleming

The Journal Record

August 22, 20140

OKLAHOMA CITY – David Bohanon and his partners at Blackstone Commercial Property Advisors started building the Tower Lakes office park in 2011. The house-like buildings are constructed according to the tenants’ preferences.

The park sits at the southeast corner of N. Kelley Avenue and E. Britton Road. Blackstone owns 40 acres at the corner, with two lakes in the center. Tower Lakes is on the west side of the lakes, and Blackstone plans to construct four office buildings on the lakes’ east side. Each building would be a maximum of four stories tall.

“It’s going to be (speculative) office space,” he said. “We’re trying to get construction started this fall. Our goal is to get 50 to 75 percent of the first building pre-leased, and then we’ll start to put shovels in the ground.”

Bohanon said a future tenant approached the company about constructing the 75,000-square-foot buildings.

“We thought we were just going to hold off on the east side of the lakes,” he said. “I was hoping we’d get to the point where we have a pent-up demand for Class A office space. The rates have gotten to the point where we can think about doing this.”

He said the company expects to get leasing rates at $23 per square foot. The latest market reports show that downtown Class A office space across the metro is 83-percent occupied. Lease rates are $21 per square foot and the northwest corridor’s Class A office lease rates are $22 per square foot.

Vicki Knotts, vice president of the office division at Newmark Grubb Levy Strange Beffort, said she works a lot in the suburban market, and it’s keeping her busy.

“A lot of people are out looking,” she said. “There’s activity other than just downtown. There are still those diehards that don’t want to fight parking.”

She said the office projects she’s heard about are not oil and gas related, though that industry that has had a big effect on the industrial market. She said she’s also seen some office space turning over, and it is quickly absorbed.

Bohanon said parking will not be an issue at the Tower Lakes office buildings, as there will be some covered areas and a wide parking lot.

“We realize downtown’s great. We love the downtown boom,” he said. “But not everybody needs or wants to be in downtown.”

He said there’s been a void in constructing new office buildings in the suburbs, which he said the company hopes this project will help fill.

“It’s a good central location,” he said. “People like the amenities we have. Everyone loves natural water effects.”

Blackstone plans to build a walking trail to complement the water area. Each building will have a reinforced concrete safe room that will double as a workout facility.