This Fort Worth company just bought a landmark Uptown Dallas building, again
Fort Worth’s Crescent Real Estate this week re-acquired its namesake, the Crescent building, an Uptown Dallas fixture.
This is the third time the John Goff-owned firm has bought the building, which anchors Uptown with 125 tenants that include a spa and dozens of restaurants. Though Goff wouldn’t say the purchase price, the Dallas Morning News reported the deal was worth upwards of $700 million, one of the largest commercial property transactions in the area.
“I love the property so much I named my company after it, so you know it has a special place in my heart,” Goff told the Star-Telegram.
But the deal is less about Goff’s personal attachment to the 1.3 million square-foot office building. Goff is making a big bet on the North Texas market. He sees a “profound” migration from “high tax and business unfriendly states” on the horizon that Dallas-Fort Worth is poised to capture.
“I have a breakfast or lunch or dinner at least once a week, and many times two or three times a week, with somebody moving a company into Texas, and a disproportionate number are coming into the Metroplex,” Goff said. “We’re going to be a huge net winner out of this.”
Here in Fort Worth, Goff’s Crescent Real Estate is developing a $250 million project in the Cultural District. The yet unnamed development involves a luxury hotel, high-end office space and apartments. Goff plans to relocate Crescent’s offices, currently in downtown, to the site at 3300 Camp Bowie Boulevard. The spot is across from the Kimbell and Modern art museums
Altogether the project could bring more than 700 employees to the heart of Fort Worth’s Cultural District. The City Council earlier this month approved a deal to purchase two parking garages planned for the development for $25 million and then split parking revenue with Crescent. With the deal, the city estimated a net of more than $14.3 million in new property tax and more than $31.6 million in new hotel tax.
With the Fort Worth project and the purchase of the Crescent building, Goff estimated his company had more than $1 billion focused on the Metroplex market.
The purchase of the Crescent is a bit of a milestone.
Goff and Richard Rainwater partnered in the 1990s to acquire high-end office buildings, buying the Crescent and renaming the company. When he sold the company for $6.5 billion in 2007, the building went with it. After he repurchased Crescent Real Estate for a profit a few years later, the company sold the property again, though Crescent Real Estate continued to be involved in leasing.
“This is one of the strongest assets in the state,” Goff said of the Crescent building.
