Solana Business Park to get a $50 million face-lift

Solana Business Park is about to undergo a $50 million face-lift that will include changing the brightly colored architectural accents that have been a signature feature since the campus was developed 25 years ago.

Equity Office Properties, an affiliate of the Blackstone Group that paid $180 million to buy the 230-acre property out of foreclosure in August, said this week that it has hired 5G Studio Collaborative in Dallas to handle the design work.

5G Studio was the design architect of the Omni Dallas Hotel, the NYLO Dallas, the Dallas Chop House and the Dallas Fish Market.

Solana is a 14-building campus that straddles Texas 114 in Westlake and Southlake. Tenants include Verizon, Wells Fargo, CoreLogic and First American. It was developed in 1989 by Los Angeles-based Maguire Partners and IBM Corp.

Work will also be done on lobbies, and a four-story parking garage and other surface parking will be added, as well as landscaping and outside gathering places for employees, said Brian Driesse, asset management director for Equity Office Properties.

Updates are needed to appeal to tenants, including “changing some colors,” Driesse said, but the renovations will maintain the integrity of the architecture and design.

“The bones and the architecture of the buildings are unique,” Driesse said. “We will not be changing that.”

The Larry North Fitness center and the Marriott Hotel will be upgraded, Driesse said. Negotiations are ongoing with possible retail tenants, he said.

Designs for the redevelopment will be ready by the end of March. Turner Construction will do the capital improvements. The DTZ commercial real estate firm will manage the renovation and handle leasing and property management. Solana is about 60 percent leased.

“The redevelopment of Solana Business Park will lend further appeal to regional, national and international companies looking to relocate operations in Texas,” Driesse said.

Stephen Park, a 5G Studio architect and co-lead on the Solana project, said: “Solana has so many assets that appeal to the corporate community. Our design vision responds to the rural Texas setting of Solana, respects the original architecture and connects with what businesses and their employees want in a work environment.”

The Blackstone Group bought the property from Five Village Circle Holdings, the U.S. Bank unit that foreclosed on and held the property.

This story was originally published February 20, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Solana Business Park to get a $50 million face-lift."