The former American Airlines complex at Fort Worth’s CentrePort development near D/FW Airport is taking new shape, with a new tenant: Bell, which has signed a long-term lease for the entire 109,187-square-foot, four-story Class A building at 4151 Amon Carter Blvd. The building is former home of the American Airlines Federal Credit Union.
Bell, which is investing in next-generation flight technologies and rebranded itself "The Future of Flight," is expanding its office space in North Texas. The building becomes home to 600 employees in the new Bell Commercial Business Center: commercial programs, global sales, customer support and services, supporting business functions, supply chain, information technology, human resources, and finance. Bell in August opened a 140,000-square-foot Manufacturing Technology Center in Fort Worth.
The 600 employees: “All employees are moving from Bell’s headquarter campus in Fort Worth,” Blakely Thress, senior global communications strategist for Bell, said.
Move-in: “Moving has taken place in a phased approach and all employees are expected to be moved by mid-January, 2020.”
COVID considerations: “The same COVID procedures currently in place at other Bell facilities will apply at the CBC. All workstations at the CBC allow for a six-foot distance between you and the person next to you in each direction. Additionally, each workstation is equipped with separation panels to the front and each side when in sit or stand position to provide additional protection.”
Purchase price: “As policy, this information is not shared.”
Transwestern’s Duane Henley and Nathan Durham executed the lease for the building’s owner, Capital Commercial Investments, based in Austin. Property management is led by Transwestern’s Becky Dennis. Todd Burnette and Matt Montague with JLL represented Bell Textron in the transaction.
Earlier this year, Transwestern handled the sale of the three-building, 1.39 million-square-foot office campus to Capital Commercial, which buys undervalued U.S. commercial investment properties. The Bell lease is the first major one since the campus’ sale. The 40-acre site includes 6.33 acres of undeveloped land and leasing opportunities are available at the 4333 and 4255 Amon Carter Blvd. buildings.
Capital Commercial Investments renovated the campus entrance lobbies, built model suites and common areas, and upgraded lighting. The property has an underground pedestrian tunnel connecting the three buildings.
“The Mid-Cities submarkets have maintained very low vacancy rates of 6.3% before American Airlines vacated the campus last year,” Andrew Matheny, Transwestern research manager, said.
“A central location allows tenants to draw from a labor pool of over 1.1 million educated workers that live anywhere from the Dallas urban core to affluent Tarrant County suburbs like Grapevine and Westlake."
According to Transwestern’s Third-Quarter Office Market Report, employment in office-using industries is flat year over year. “Continued hiring in professional services and finance has netted out remaining declines in administrative services and information.”