COVER STORY, JUNE 2008

NO STRATEGY NEEDED
Harwood’s Saint Ann Court office tower in Uptown Dallas is its own best selling point.
Lindsey Walker

On the 12th floor, Saint Ann Court features the Rockefeller Roof Garden, which provides sweeping views of downtown.

With a track record of successfully building and leasing Class AA buildings for the past 24 years, Harwood International knows what it’s doing when it comes to office towers. Its newest venture, Saint Ann Court, is no exception.

Harwood founder Gabriel Barbier-Mueller is developing the 27-story glass tower in Harwood, a 17-block district that will eventually feature office, residential, retail, restaurant and open park space in Uptown Dallas. Currently, there are six buildings (including Saint Ann Court) in the Harwood District.

Spanning almost 315,000 square feet at 2501 N. Harwood, Saint Ann Court will be a Class AA office tower — in fact, the tallest office tower in Uptown Dallas — and will offer hard-to-beat amenities, both within the building and surrounding it. From super VIP parking, which allows 17 tenants to bypass the lobby and take elevators straight to their floor, to a garden lounge and bar and a fitness center with world-class equipment, Saint Ann Court’s building amenities are enough by themselves to attract tenants. These, combined with a superior location in one of the most desirable parts of town, make the tower a logical choice for the high-level financial companies that Harwood is targeting.

Harwood International is developing Saint Ann Court in Uptown Dallas.

“The amenities, the attention to detail, the customer service, the fact that we’ve been in the business for so long and the fact that we own, manage and office in our buildings — that attracts a lot of our tenants,” says Jihane A. Boury, vice president, development and leasing, and director of design, for Harwood International.

Designing From The Inside Out

Harwood has had such success with its office projects because of its attention to what the office user wants, and Saint Ann Court is living up to that standard.

“We like to design the buildings from the inside out, and we have the office user in mind when we do that,” Boury says.

For Saint Ann Court, that means open floor plans and floor-to-ceiling glass in each individual office. The penthouse offices on the top four floors have taller ceiling heights, smaller floor plates and even private terraces overlooking the Uptown and downtown skylines.

However, it’s not just the penthouses that have these views. Harwood intentionally elevated the building to 12 levels up so each office would have open panoramic views of the city.

Saint Ann Court’s porte cochere.

Tenants today, according to Boury, are being smarter about the office locations they choose. They want to be in an office location that will help them recruit the best talent in terms of employees, and they want to be in an office that is designed to enhance productivity and save energy.

“A lot of our tenants ask if we are seeking LEED certification for Saint Ann Court,” Boury says. “We’re seeing in the market that people that are looking for new office space are more intelligent about these things, and that’s a pre-requisite for them.”

Saint Ann Court is aiming for LEED Gold certification.

The building’s exterior is a key attraction as well, with its manicured gardens and glass from floor to ceiling.

“Saint Ann Court will be an architecturally striking tower with its beautiful double volume lobby, the elegant approach of the motor court and all its gardens is what will make it one of a kind office building,” Boury says. “You just don’t see buildings built like this every day.”

Amenities Unlike Any Other

Besides the attention to detail within the individual office spaces and on the exterior, Saint Ann Court has a few amenities that won’t be seen in any other Dallas office building.

The Samurai Espresso lobby bar.

Located on the first level is part of the historical St. Ann’s School, a former center of activity for Little Mexico, the nearly vanished neighborhood that once stood in this part of Uptown. Harwood is integrating the oldest parts of the school, which was built as the first Catholic school for Mexican-American children in 1927, into the tower’s design, converting the space into an upscale restaurant called Saint Ann Café. Harwood is even taking painstaking measures to preserve the school’s Virgin of Guadalupe mural, incorporating it into the gardens by the Saint Ann Café.

“On the east side of the school building, we have designed a new cantilevered glass element extension where one can still see the remnants of the original façade,” Boury says. “We’re also adding large glass doors at the first level to marry the interior of the Marie Gabrielle café with the beautiful courtyard.”

Another unique aspect of the building is the Barbier-Mueller Art Gallery on the second floor that will have more than 100 samurai helmets and armor owned by the developer on display for public viewing. As a complement to these pieces, Harwood created the Samurai Espresso lobby bar for the building’s busy workers on the go.

On the third floor, there will be approximately 2,800 square feet of workout facilities overlooking Saint Ann Gardens. The gym will feature state-of-the-art equipment made by the Italian company, Technogym, which is the only company allowed to have equipment in the Olympics for training before the games.

Moving up to the 12th floor, Harwood has created a Rockefeller-style garden that overlooks the skyline of downtown. The garden spans 12,000 square feet.

“We wanted to give the tenants of Saint Ann Court exclusive amenities,” says Boury. “The Rockefeller roof garden will give our tenant an additional outdoor space, a beautiful garden perched 130 feet in the air.”

The Building That Leases Itself

With Harwood’s extensive background and the property’s unmatched list of amenities, Saint Ann Court currently is 62 percent pre-leased (at the time of print) with several big names on the tenant roster. The building is scheduled to open in fall 2009.

The Boston Consulting Group, for example, recently signed on for 57,000 square feet on floors 21, 22 and 23. The company, which is relocating from downtown Dallas, is going to occupy all of floors 22 and 23 and half of 21. The 23rd floor office includes two terraces — one overlooking the Uptown and Harwood District areas and the other facing downtown and the American Airlines Center.

“[The Boston Consulting Group] looked at all the buildings surrounding us,” Boury says. “But, recruiting and retaining played a huge role for them. Having seen Saint Ann Court’s unique amenities and its central location, the great views offered, the ability to walk to the American Airlines Center, W, Ritz, and all high end restaurants made it a good decision for them to choose Saint Ann Court.”

Amegy Bank is the tower’s anchor tenant and another high-profile company within the building.

“Amegy Bank, as the anchor tenant, is going to get high visibility from a standpoint of signage,” Boury says. “The company is very excited to be with us. They saw the location and felt that Saint Ann Court was the next financial center in Uptown.”

Additional tenants include Erasmus Advisors; McGuire, Craddock & Strother; Aldus Equity; and Harwood International. Boury says, “We have several LOIs for the remaining floors, which include the 19th and 20th floors, and the 24th floor, which is the last of the four penthouses that we have left to lease.”

With Saint Ann Court leasing up so well, Harwood already is looking at other options for the next office tower in the district.

“We have 17 city blocks, so we are always ready for the next one because we understand the demand for the area,” she says. “We are ready with at least three other office sites that we will be proposing in some time coming up.”

Dallas Market On The Rise

In light of the economic woes facing the U.S., Boury believes that the rest of the country is looking at Dallas as the place to be.

“Dallas is a great city and is growing,” she says. “Businesses are coming in and looking at Dallas constantly. We get calls from the various chambers all the time asking us what kind of site we can propose.”

The Uptown market, in particular, seems to be on the verge of significant growth. People, according to Boury, are wanting to come to the area due to its amenities; its proximity to the five-star hotels, the culture and the restaurants of downtown; and because the area provides what Harwood refers to as the “Walk to Life,” a lifestyle in which all the needs and desires of an urban dweller are literally steps away.

The Harwood District plans to capitalize on and add to this growth over the next 15 to 20 years, adding more parks, more residential options and more commercial components to the vibrant area. For example, Azure, a 31-story, luxury, resort-style residential tower, recently opened in the district, and The Oliver, Glacier and The Square are additional multifamily high-rise projects planned for Harwood.

“Within the organization, our founder Gabriel Barbier-Mueller has a quote that guides our vision – ‘Yesterday we planned for today; today we plan for tomorrow’ – and that is what we are doing with the Harwood District,” Boury says. “We will continue to grow in 17 phases to include over 7 million square feet of condominium, office, retail and residential development in the years ahead; and I think that’s an exciting prospect for the future of Uptown and for the city of Dallas.”

©2008 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.