DALLAS — Read this story and more North Texas business news from our partners at the Dallas Business Journal
Costco Wholesale Corp. is set to buy a 10-story office tower along U.S. Route 75 next to one of its Dallas stores after the building's owner filed for bankruptcy protection.
The retail giant made the highest offer of $14.25 million for North Central Plaza I, a roughly 198,000-square-foot office building at 12655 N. Central Expressway, according to federal court documents.
The building is on about four acres adjacent to the Costco store near the intersection of U.S. 75 and Interstate 635 on Churchill Way, one of its 13 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Another bidder made an offer of just under $12.1 million, according to court documents. Costco's offer is just over the $14.1 million market value listed by the Dallas Central Appraisal District.
The owner, Houston-based Hartman SPE LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September and has been selling off office and retail properties as its parent company, Silver Star Properties REIT Inc., turned its focus to investing in self-storage properties.
Nationally, Costco has purchased similar properties including a former Hertz Corp. office building in Oklahoma City for a new operations center and a small office building in Springfield, Virginia, next to a store to potentially expand, according to CoStar News.
It remains unclear why the company purchased the building in Dallas. Costco did not respond to a request for comment.
"They will likely tear it down," Mike Geisler, managing partner of Dallas retail brokerage Venture Commercial, speculated to CoStar News. He was not involved in the deal. "Everyone is doing different things with fulfillment centers today with a lot of experimentation underway and it would make sense for them to want to give their customers more conveniences."
The office building is about 72% leased, and its largest tenants include Zion Oil & Gas, Move It Storage and Cadence Bank, according to CoStar Group data.
