Downtown Dallas is getting a big new office employer in one of the biggest moves of its kind from the suburbs in years.
Integrity Marketing Group, a large independent insurance company, rents approximately 100,000 square feet of office space in the landmark Fountain Place Tower on Ross Avenue. It’s one of the largest office deals in North Texas since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The insurer, which employs more than 5,500 people nationwide, is moving its headquarters from the Cypress Waters development north of the LBJ Freeway to the downtown skyscraper. Between 300 and 400 employees will be housed in the new offices when it opens in spring.
Integrity Marketing decided to move downtown after considering numerous office options, said CEO Bryan Adams. He said Fountain Place gives his company the space it needs to grow.
“We took a look around Cypress Waters,” said Adams. “As fast as we grow, we need more space than a campus-like program.
“We checked Frisco and Legacy in Plano,” he said. “We looked pretty much everywhere, including uptown and downtown.”
Adams said the Integrity Marketing Group will occupy six floors of Fountain Place. “We are on three floors in a temporary location that we just moved into,” he said. “Our executives and most of our team are here now. We are already bursting at the seams. “
Since the beginning of 2021, the company has increased its workforce from 1,700 to almost 5,500 employees.
“Our predictions bring us to hundreds more people here in the next three or so years,” said Adams. “Fountain Place is one of the most iconic buildings in downtown.
“It is an opportunity for us to have a great urban building and presence in a world-class facility.”
Dallas-based architect Corgan is designing the insurance company’s new headquarters to enable future growth.
The insurance company’s move comes as downtown Dallas is awakening to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most downtown offices were almost empty last year as workers stayed at home.
Now downtown is coming back to life as employers reopen their offices.
“This move is a very positive sign for downtown, especially last year,” said Kourtny Garrett, president of the Downtown Dallas Inc. economic development group. “The past year has been challenging for every market.
“We are happy to be able to talk about such a step.”
The Integrity Marketing Group move is one of the largest downtown expansions in the past decade. The insurance company joins other companies, including Goldman Sachs and Omnicom Group, who have relocated workers to Dallas’s central business district.
“I can’t remember many major moves downtown,” said Josh White, executive vice president of commercial real estate company CBRE. “It’s an important signal for the return of life to the inner city and hopefully sends a message to some of these other moving tenants.
“I was excited about the trend associated with this transaction,” said White, who represented Integrity Marketing Group in finding a new location. “We saw so many urban tenants move to suburban solutions.”
White conducted the rental negotiations with Ryan Buchanan, Fletcher Cordell, Dennis Barnes and Jackie Marshall from CBRE.
Integrity Marketing Group is one of the largest independent distributors of life and health insurance products in the country, working through more than 370,000 agents. These agents serve more than 8 million customers.
“I started this business from my home in Highland Village,” said Adams. “Because we are a fast growing insurance technology company, we needed the flexibility to grow.
“These offices give us the opportunity to have a truly vertical campus that we can continue to add additional floors.”
Integrity Marketing Group moved downtown shortly after Goddard Investment Group, owner of Fountain Place, spent more than $ 70 million on the redevelopment of the Ross Avenue Tower landmark.
“We have just completed a historic renovation of Fountain Place, so we are delighted to be working with such an explosive and market-leading group as Integrity Marketing,” said Russell Read, president of Goddard Investment Group, in a statement. “They fit perfectly with such a striking and iconic office building.”
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Fountain Place owners have just completed a more than $ 70 million renovation of the downtown landmark.(Goddard investment group)
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