Anderson Merchandisers Takes Full-Floor Lease in Plano

The flight to quality office trend is responsible for yet another corporate relocation.

Anderson Merchandisers is moving its headquarters from one Plano office to another; it’s leaving Granite Properties’ Granite Park III, which was built in 2007, for Apex at Legacy, a property delivered in 2021.

The retail merchandising company inked a deal to occupy 30,000 square feet — the full top floor — at the 210,000-square-foot office building, according to a news release from JLL. Anderson is bringing more than 100 employees to the space by the fourth quarter of this year, with plans to hire more.

JLL’s Conor McCarthy and Jayme Schutt represented the tenant in lease negotiations. John Brownlee, Gini Rounsaville and Michael Williams represented the landlord, Monarch Alternative Capital and Tourmaline Capital Partners.

Apex at Legacy, at 5801 Headquarters Drive, is a 14-story office building that was developed by Dallas-based Heady Investments. Monarch Alternative Capital and Tourmaline Capital Partners purchased the property in 2021.

It includes features like a game lounge that includes a golf simulator. It’s within walking distance from Legacy West, a mixed-use development in Plano with more than 400,000 square feet of retail and office space.

There are plans for expansion — the development will soon feature a second building with office space and a Kimpton Hotel, the release said.

Corporate America’s push to return to the office has emphasized the flight-to-quality trend in the office market.

Companies like Anderson Merchandisers are luring employees into the office with top-of-the-line amenities. Meanwhile, operators of older inventory are under pressure to compete with new deliveries.

That’s just one segment of the Dallas-Fort Worth office market, which had 52.8 million square feet of unused office space in November. The Metroplex ranked third in the country for office vacancy, behind New York and Chicago.