FORT WORTH-With occupancy hitting 61.6%, the Dallas-based owner of the $200-million City Place project in the CBD has handed office leasing to its construction manager, Stream Realty Partners LP.  In conjunction with the move, the retail assignment has gone to a third Dallas firm, the Retail Connection.

Co-Owners PNL Cos. And Easop didn't put the 312,000-sf office assignment for Two City Place on the open market, but rather quietly moved it to get the reins into one setof hands, dealmakers say.  Since the project's inception, NAI Huff Partners in Fort Worth has been in charge of leasing for the 300 Throckmorton St. tower.

"Huff has done a great job of brining this to 60%, but it made sense for Stream to come in from a continuity standpoint," Chris Wright, a Stream senior associate, tells GlobeSt.com.  He is soloing on the office assignment while the Retail Connection's Chris Thomas and Ross Golman are leading the charge to find and sign tenants for 74,245 sf of shop space that will come on line in the four-block project.  Two City Place has 17,000 sf of street-level retail, with the balance in a central block connector between the office tower and One City Place at 100 Throckmorton St., a shuttered office tower that's awaiting a residential conversion.

Wright says NAI Huff principals William Behr and Leland Prowse have about 75,000 sf of prospects in the pipeline--all "protected deals" under the assignment change and none as yet at the negotiation stage.  The most recent signing is Ancor Holdings, which took about 7,500 sf.  Details about the headquarters deal weren't available by press time, but Ancor now offices at 201 Main St.  Ancor's tenant reps were NAI Huff principals Jack Huff and Kyle Poulson.

"They wanted to have everything under one umbrella," Behr says.  "That pretty much speaks for itself."

Stream has several third-party management assignments in the city but, as Wright points out, "this is our first major leasing assignment in Fort Worth."  And, the plan naturally is to hit the ground running.  "We are taking over with new transactions immediately," he says.

The 19-story Two City Place, quoted at $22 per sf to $27 per sf, has 103,000 sf of available space.  The largest contiguous block is 32,1180 sf on floors six and seven.  Another full floor, the fourth, also has 16,072 sf of wide-open space and the 16,100-sf 17th level is up for grabs as well.  On the fifth floor are four ready-to-go suites, ranging from 1,500 sf to 2,000 sf.  The office building's lead tenant is Range Resources, which occupies 80,000 sf on floors nine through 14.

As the reins change, Two City Place's lobby is under construction.  Wright says the work will wrap up in early February, opening the door for phase two construction to begin shortly thereafter on the central block, former Fort Worth Outlet Square and adjoining parking garage.  The residential tower will remain on the drawing board, he says.  The St. Louis-based HOK Group Inc.'s Dallas team is the architect for the central block, which teamed with Gideon Toal in Fort Worth to design City Place.  Easop's founder Tap Prichard has been acting as project manger for the redevelopment.