New tower north of downtown Dallas lands a major office tenant

An office tower going up just north of downtown Dallas is now 70% taken, thanks to a major lease.

International law firm O’Melveny & Myers is tripling the size of its Dallas office with a 75,000-square-foot lease in the Harwood No. 14 tower.

The 27-story high-rise is under construction on Harry Hines Boulevard near the exit from the Dallas North Tollway.

The project of Dallas-based developer Harwood International will open in 2023.

New tenant Los Angeles-based O’Melveny & Myers expanded to Dallas in 2021 and occupies a smaller office in Harwood International’s building at 2501 N. Harwood St.

“O’Melveny is fully committed to expanding our presence in the Lone Star State,” Teresa Doremus, O’Melveny & Myers’ head of operations and real estate, said in a statement. “We are confident that Harwood No. 14 will be the perfect fit for our lawyers and staff as we continue to grow in Dallas.”

Phil Puckett, Harlan Davis, Jeff Welch and Lynn Williams of CBRE Group negotiated the law firm lease with Kelly Whaley and Hannah Mesh of Harwood International.

O’Melveny & Myers joins Haynes and Boone and S2 Capital as the first tenants in the Harwood No. 14 tower. The high-rise is the latest addition to the 19-block Harwood district next to Uptown Dallas.

“We pride ourselves on an over 90% tenant retention rate due to our ability to provide room for growth and our exceptional level of service,” Harwood’s Whaley said.

The strong lease-up at the Harwood No. 14 building is in line with what other new Uptown area office projects are seeing.

The new Link at Uptown office tower on Olive Street just opened and is more than 75% leased at some of the highest rates in the area.

Other developers are scrambling to kick off construction on Uptown towers to take advantage of the demand for offices in the neighborhood north of downtown.