Santander Sheds Office Space, Recommits to Namesake Dallas Tower

Santander Consumer USA has recommitted to its namesake tower in downtown Dallas at a time when many companies are fleeing the downtown area.

The Dallas-based auto lender renewed its lease for 211,000 square feet in Pacific Elm Properties’ 50-story building at 1601 Elm Street and will retain naming rights, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Robbie Baty and Travis Boothe of Cushman & Wakefield represented Santander in lease negotiations, while Sara Terry and Reegan Busby represented Pacific Elm, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Woods Capital.

The lease represents a reduction in space for Santander, as it was reported last year that the company was reducing its occupancy in the building from 400,000 square feet to 250,000 square feet.

Even though the downsize will add to the mountain of empty office space downtown, simply retaining an anchor tenant is a big win for Pacific Elm, given the plethora of companies that have ditched their downtown digs in favor of newer, amenity-filled office buildings elsewhere in the city, primarily in the Uptown area.

Among the companies to make this move is Bank of America, which will vacate its 500,000-square-foot space in its namesake tower with plans to relocate to the 30-story Parkside Uptown, which KDC and Pacific Elm are developing at 1919 Woodall Rodgers Freeway.

The 1.4 million-square-foot Santander Tower is one of several downtown properties that Pacific Elm has targeted for office-to-residential conversion. The firm, which bought the building in 2013, transformed 14 floors of empty office space in the building into more than 220 luxury apartments.

Dallas is one the nation’s leaders in the office-to-resi movement, stemming from historically low demand for office space amid the remote-work era. Pacific Elm has also acquired the Bryan Tower and Comerica Bank Tower in downtown Dallas with similar conversion plans in mind.

—Quinn Donoghue