Telecom firm Ericsson is more than doubling the size of its office space in Richardson.

The high-tech firm, a longtime fixture in the Telecom Corridor, has rented 260,000 square feet of the former Nortel Networks Corp. campus on U.S. Highway 75 north of Campbell Road.

Ericsson leased the prime office space from real estate firm Pillar Commercial, which just bought the buildings.

“When we purchased this campus, we believed it truly was one of the premier commercial properties in the region, and this commitment from Ericsson is a testament to that belief,” Pillar CEO Manny Ybarra said Monday in a written statement.

Pillar Commercial began working on the Ericsson deal after it had the buildings under contract to purchase, a Pillar spokesman said.

Ericsson already occupies 200,000 square feet in the complex at 2201-2221 Lakeside Blvd.

The company has 1,100 employees in the old Nortel buildings.

“In the past two years, Ericsson has grown from some 2,000 employees to more than 4,000 in the Dallas area,” said Rob Elston, director of external communications for Ericsson North America . “The new space will accommodate roughly 1,400 personnel and is in addition to our North American headquarters in Plano.”

Ericsson’s U.S. operations are owned by the Swedish parent company, which has been in business since the 1800s.

Mike Wyatt and Ken Johnston of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. negotiated the lease for Ericsson with Pillar Commercial.

“This facility, because of Nortel’s prior capital investment in the project, had some of the most robust power and telecommunications infrastructure of any property in the area,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt said he couldn’t provide any further details on the transaction.

John Jacobs, senior vice president of economic development with the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, said Ericsson has had operations in the city since the mid-1980s.

“They seem to be one of the most healthy [firms] and a major survivor in the telecommunications equipment business,” Jacobs said.

The just-signed office lease is one of the largest in North Texas in 2011.

“We look at vacant office space as inventory we can sell,” Jacobs said. “Hopefully, this deal will get the momentum going” in the Telecom Corridor.

Pillar Commercial bought Nortel’s old U.S. headquarters complex out of bankruptcy for more than $43 million.

The 800,000-square-foot office complex has the largest block of vacant space in the Telecom Corridor.

The 16-story office tower and adjoining research and laboratory buildings have been up for sale since early this year.

Along with Ericsson, Avaya Inc. also rents space in the buildings, which were constructed in 1991 and at one time housed thousands of Nortel workers. Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and has been liquidating assets.

Pillar Commercial has been in business since 2004 and specializes in purchasing and repositioning underperforming commercial properties.

Staff writer Victor Godinez contributed to this report.

 

Source:dallasnews

 

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