Higher gas prices will change the landscape of the Dallas-Fort Worth commercial real estate market, accelerating urbanization and prompting companies to re-examine where they set up shop, local real estate executives say.

Buildings on Dallas Area Rapid Transit lines will thrive while out-of-the-way locations will suffer as gas prices continue to rise, said Sanders Thompson of Transwestern, who heads up leasing at Bank of America Tower in downtown Dallas.

"Buildings on DART will be the clear winners," Thompson said. "The other buildings that will come out ahead are the ones near large concentrations of workers."

High gas prices will accentuate urbanization trends already playing out in Dallas and other cities as people move to the city's core to live close to work and other amenities, said Gabriel Barbier-Mueller, chairman and CEO of Harwood International, the real estate company developing the Harwood District in Uptown Dallas and other major projects.

Drivers already frustrated by long commutes from the suburbs will increasingly embrace the highly touted "live-work-play" lifestyle offered in Uptown and downtown, he said. Lower-income workers will move to apartments in the Design District to be closer to work, and high-income earners will move to condominiums in places such as the Harwood and Victory developments, Barbier-Mueller said.

"The real luxury is regaining control of your time," he said. "Spending a lot of commuting time in your car burns both money and time. It's just a waste. People can regain that aspect of their lives."

Economic consideration

Downtown Dallas, an association that promotes the interests of downtown and Uptown, has tweaked its marketing message in response to soaring gas costs, said John Crawford, president and CEO of the group.

"As we talk to companies that are in the process of relocating, we talk to them about the type of people they are looking to hire," Crawford said. "When they are looking for Generation X and Generation Y employees, we point out that 'live-work-play' is no longer just a lifestyle consideration. Now it's more of an economic consideration for these people."

Phil Puckett, an office tenant broker with CB Richard Ellis Inc., said he hasn't yet had a tenant choose a building solely because of its position on a DART rail line, but tenants are showing increasing interest in those buildings.

"More people are asking about what's going on with DART rail and what's the timing of the new rail lines in terms of delivery," he said. "Given the price of gas, proximity to the DART rail lines only gets more important."

High gas prices are prompting employers to more strongly consider employees' commuting patterns when deciding whether and where to move, said Jean Farris, director of leasing at Hall Office Park in Frisco.

"If a company has been in Las Colinas all of these years, and they find their employees are in a different part of the city, they will relocate to a different part of the city," Farris said. "They (companies) will try harder than ever to relocate near their employee base."

Business center benefits

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