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Good morning. Uptown Dallas keeps pulling in Wall Street money, and now a REIT is buying the dirt beneath it. Cousins Properties took a majority land stake under Morgan Stanley's planned tower, betting on a district whose values just edged past downtown.
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Market Snapshot
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Ground Play
Cousins Buys Into the Land Under Morgan Stanley's Uptown Dallas Tower
Cousins Properties is buying into Morgan Stanley's future in Uptown Dallas, taking a majority stake in the land under the bank's planned tower alongside developer Trammell Crow Co.
What happened: Cousins wrote a $50 million check at the outset for 97.5% of the equity, with $42 million going to the land and $8 million to predevelopment. The full land price stayed private, and Cousins committed only to the ground so far.
Who runs it: Trammell Crow keeps the development reins and will run the project day to day, while Cousins sits as a limited partner. Morgan Stanley picked Uptown for a regional hub in September, backed by $43 million in state incentives.
By the numbers: The tower at 2401 McKinney Ave. is expected to cost Trammell Crow about $650 million, with the bank contributing more than $589 million. The 700,000 SF building will be leased for 16 years starting in 2031, part of a $684 million hub aiming for 3,800 employees by 2035.
A banking magnet: The site sits less than a mile from Goldman Sachs' $709 million, 800,000 SF campus due in 2028. JLL pegs Uptown property values above $10 billion this year, edging past downtown as banks and the Texas Stock Exchange cluster in the district.
➥ THE TAKEAWAY
A low-risk way in: For Cousins, the land stake is a cheap entry into Uptown's financial-services boom without taking on construction risk. With its leasing strong and Q1 rents up 18%, management is favoring development where returns beat buying, and Trammell Crow aims to break ground by mid-2027.
Around Texas
➥ U.S. apartment vacancy fell to 7.8%, its lowest since late 2023, but concessions climbed to 4.2% as Midwest rents rose 2.3% while oversupplied markets continued to struggle.
➥ Dallas is inviting developers to reimagine 40 acres of mostly empty Fair Park parking lots, hoping a revenue-generating project can finally steady the district's shaky finances.
➥ San Antonio apartment rents fell 3.4% over the year, the weakest among Yardi Matrix's top 30 markets, with 9,698 units still in the pipeline keeping pressure on landlords.
➥ A Nord Group lawyer moved to withdraw, saying the Houston landlord can't pay, as Fannie Mae seeks contempt sanctions and auctions one of its last complexes.
➥ Pharmaceutical-services firm Ceutical Laboratories signed a full-building lease on 33K SF in Lewisville, relocating its HQ from Flower Mound and converting the space into labs.
➥ Software giant SAP chose the Dallas suburb of Addison, Texas over out-of-state options for a roughly 1,000-employee hub.
Follow the Money
| INDUSTRIALCIBOLO Walmart filed plans for a 744,433 SF, $400M distribution center near San Antonio, with construction starting in February and an August 2029 target opening. |
| INDUSTRIALFORT WORTH Taiwan's King Yuan Electronics paid $79M for 27 acres to build a $1.3B, 507,000 SF chip-testing plant that will serve Nvidia. |
| DATA CENTERSTEXAS Developers are watching the governor's race for data-center policy after Abbott ordered a pause on new state approvals and grid connections. |
| RETAILFRISCO GGP will redevelop a former Dick's box at Stonebriar Centre into a covered outdoor dining pavilion, with construction starting in Q1 2027. |
| OFFICEFRIENDSWOOD Wellby Financial broke ground on a five-story, 102K SF headquarters at Baybrook Center, targeting completion in October 2028. |
📈 CHART OF THE WEEK
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Banking Conditions Survey suggested a slower pace of expansion in loan volumes in September. The total loan volume index fell from a series high of 50 to 23, remaining in positive territory and indicative of growth.
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