2016 has not yet yielded the
type of blockbuster relocation project that has regularly landed in Richardson
over the past several years, but the Telecom Corridor® continues to plug along,
mindful that it has desirable, ready-to-go and large chunks of office space
available when the right user shows up.

That inventory includes over
600,000 SF in a three-building complex at Galatyn Park along with the 400,000-square-foot
former MCI campus at 2400 N. Glenville. Both properties have been or soon will
be upgraded to offer some unique and worker-friendly amenities. All total, Richardson
has nine office properties that offer more than 100,000 SF of contiguous
office space.

At the same time,
Richardson’s overstock of flex space continues to revert to its historic 8-10% vacancy
rate with rents and sales comps on a distinct rise. For calendar year 2015, Richardson’s
net absorption in flex space, 462,000 SF, was the most since 1998!
According to Co-Star, 113 leases contributed to that surprising
turnaround.  Richardson flex vacancy
rates, which had soared to around 35% in 2009, currently stand at only
12.7%.    

Some of the more notable
completed expansions and relocations this spring were:

• e2v, a defense/semiconductor
  company that the REDP recruited from California, has successfully completed
  its “soft landing” phase in the STARTech building and has signed a lease
  for a more permanent Richardson residence at 1301 East Collins. e2v is the US
  subsidiary of the venerable Chelmsford, England company, originally known as
  “English Electric Valve”, which back in the 1930s developed the radar that
  helped win the Battle of Britain.

• The REDP was successful in securing the relocation
  of the corporate HQ and operations of Aprima Medical Software, a 320-employee
  technology company from Carrollton. Founded in the early 1990s, under the name
  Millbrook Medical Software, Aprima has grown over the years to now support 2,000
  physician practices in 47 US states, Puerto Rico and Guam. With its 2011
  acquisition of DFW-based Healthcare Strategies, Aprima is now able to add a
  revenue cycle management (RCM) offering its clinical software products. By the
  end of summer, Aprima will occupy 55,000 SF in the three-story office building
  at 1010 Arapaho, which was recently acquired by Momentum Realty, a locally-based
  property owner. The east Arapaho area, in which the building is located, is the
  target of the RCC’s #1 2016 Economic Division goal, which is to enhance
  economic vitality in the area. This project gives that effort a major jump
  start.   

• Fast-growing auto repair
  rollup Service King has taken down another 38,000 SF at 2600 N. Central
  Expy. as its HQ workforce expands to accommodate the additional collision repair
  shops it has acquired. The space was subleased by Safety-Kleen.