Financial moves: Bank of Texas makes move to 777 Main

777 Main 

If you’re headed downtown to visit your bank, you might want to double check the address.

Several banks have changed locations in downtown in the past several months.

The latest is Bank of Texas. It will be relocating its downtown Fort Worth office to 777 Main St. after negotiating a 21,328-square-foot lease in the high-profile building.

“Bank of Texas has been in the Fort Worth market for over 15 years,” said Mark Wade, Bank of Texas president and chief operating officer. “Relocating into the heart of downtown Fort Worth not only confirms our commitment to our current clients, it also reinforces to the community that the Fort Worth market is a priority for Bank of Texas.”

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JLL negotiated the lease for the Bank of Texas, a division of BOK Financial.

Bank of Texas won’t be the only bank in the building.

UMB Bank is relocating its offices to 777 Main St. into Frost Bank’s former location there. UMB’s current Fort Worth location is at 100 Lexington St., on the western edge of downtown.

“We’re really excited about that opportunity. We’re going to have signage on both corners of the bank,” said Michael Garner, president of UMB Bank in Fort Worth, in an earlier interview.

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UMB will have 12,000 square feet on the building’s fifth floor to house the company’s entire Fort Worth staff of about 30 people across all divisions, and it will have 7,000 square feet on the first floor to house the banking lobby and the retail and private wealth group. On the fifth floor will be commercial, energy, commercial real estate and treasure management. The DLR Group Staffelbach out of Dallas is overseeing the design of the space.

The 777 Main location was formerly known as Carter+Burgess Plaza and before that UPR Plaza. It was originally Continental Plaza when it was built in 1982 as the home of Continental National Bank.

Frost Bank, meanwhile, has opened in its new digs in the new 25-story Frost Tower Fort Worth at 640 Taylor St. on the west side of downtown.

Also recently getting in on the moving trend was Bank of America, which in September moved into its new main location in the former D.H. Horton Tower, now renamed the Bank of America Tower. The bank relocated from its longtime location at 500 W. Seventh St.

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Bank of Texas will relocate from its current Burnett Plaza location at 801 Cherry St. to the 777 Main building to accommodate projected growth in the market, according to the JLL news release.

“We are eager about our upcoming move and look forward to having additional space for future growth of our team,” said Mark Nurdin, Bank of Texas president and CEO for the Fort Worth Region. “The accessibility of downtown, being adjacent to the energy of Sundance Square and the amenities 777 Main offers is a unique opportunity for our team and something we are very excited about.”

JLL Managing Director Pat McDowell and Executive Vice President Brooke Armstrong negotiated the new office lease on behalf of Bank of Texas. Transwestern’s Whit Kelly represented The Brookdale Group, owners of 777 Main Street.

“Bank of Texas’ new office reinforces their commitment to the region, their growing client base and to their employees,” said Armstrong “The amenities and walkability of downtown Fort Worth and Sundance Square create a unique and enjoyable business environment for their clients and staff and allows them to remain near other leading professional service companies.”

While Bank of Texas is moving closer to the heart of downtown, it will continue to have a presence just off West Seventh Street at 600 Penn St. Further south on nearby Summit Avenue, Ciera Bank anchors the corner overlooking Interstate 30 in a new building that opened last year. Joining Ciera Bank on Summit is the recently opened Spirit of Texas Bank at 1120 Summit Ave., the location where Ciera Bank set up temporary headquarters while its new building was under construction. Spirit of Texas bank relocated from an office on Hulen Street.

According to JLL Research, Downtown Fort Worth remains one of the tightest submarkets in the area.

As of Q4 2017, total vacancy for the submarket was at 11.8 percent, second only to West/Southwest Fort Worth which was at 9.5 percent. Additionally, Downtown is demanding the market’s highest average direct rent rates per square foot at $26.67.

– This report includes material from the Fort Worth Business Press archives.