Commercial real estate could include several categories of real estate like industrial, retail, investment or office. Commercial real estate stands for property that is used for a business or investment venture that has the potential to provide a return on the money spent. In Dallas, commercial real estate goes largely by the same classification and consists of the aforementioned categories. The main players in the commercial real estate scene in Dallas are brokers, mortgage brokers, architects, property managers, and lending agencies.
As in any big city, commercial real estate in Dallas is situated mainly in downtown Dallas, with its sprawling skyscrapers that vary in their architectures and sizes. The one- and two-storied commercial buildings that dot the downtown area typically accommodate restaurants and night clubs. The recent practice has been to convert some of the old commercial buildings into lofts. Some of the fastest-moving commercial properties in Dallas are retail space, high rise offices, downtown lofts, warehouses and industrial plots, and executive suites. Apart from downtown Dallas, the nearby cities of Plano and Hurst are areas of commercial real estate activity.
The North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors and the North Texas Commercial Association of Real Estate Professionals are two associations that bring real estate professionals from the North Texas area, particularly the Dallas area, together.
The Dallas commercial real estate market has remained vibrant due to the continuous growth of the Texas economy, particularly the Dallas economy. For the period of 2000-2005, Dallas was forecast to be in the list of the top five cities in the nation on the basis of demand for construction of office spaces. The commercial real estate scenario in Dallas has been impacted by the boom in the telecommunications and call-center industries, making Dallas the center of these activities in the nation. This has been driven by the fact that the cost of conducting business in Dallas is eight per cent below the national average. The positive outlook for the telecommunications and wireless industries means that the commercial real estate scene in Dallas would remain bright.