Developer KDC is buying three Richardson office and commercial buildings that now house operations of Fossil Inc.
KDC plans to renovate the buildings for other business tenants after Fossil moves later this year to its new headquarters on North Central Expressway.
With demand for office space growing in the Telecom Corridor, KDC expects to easily rent out the 460,000 square feet of space.
“We are going to be ready to hit the ground with this project as soon as Fossil moves out,” KDC senior vice president John Brownlee said Thursday. “We are always looking for things to buy.”
The buildings KDC bought for redevelopment include Fossil’s 190,000-square-foot headquarters at 2280 N. Greenville Ave. and an industrial building nearby.
The developer is also buying the 131,000-square-foot Fall Creek building that the fashion watch and accessories firm occupies at 2323 N. Central Expressway.
“There is 10 acres of land that goes with it,” Brownlee said. “We can do as much as a half-million square feet of additional construction on that site.”
KDC has a record of building large corporate facilities. It developed the huge Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas headquarters across from Fall Creek on North Central. The developer has also done several big business facilities in Las Colinas and Plano’s Legacy business park.
“Now that Legacy office space is getting full, there are very few options there,” Brownlee said. “There is good demand for stuff in the Telecom Corridor.”
During the first half of 2011, businesses moved into about 100,000 square feet of additional office space in the Telecom Corridor. This week, telecommunications firm Ericsson announced that it was leasing an additional 260,000 square feet of office space in Richardson.
In September, Fossil will move into 535,000 square feet of office space at North Central and Spring Valley Road in Richardson. The office complex, which is being remodeled, formerly housed Blue Cross’ offices.
Brownlee said discussions to buy the Fossil properties came up when KDC was in negotiations with the company to lease the new headquarters space.
“They were thinking about what they could do with these buildings,” he said.