NTT Data Shops Penney's Plano HQ for Expansion Space

A high-tech firm that recently relocated its U.S. headquarters to Plano's $3 billion Legacy West development is already eyeing a major expansion.NTT Data Corp. has been shopping for a big block of office space in the J.C. Penney campus, real estate brokers who are tracking the deal say.The sprawling Penney building is being converted into a multi-tenant office complex as the retailer downsizes its operations in the building.Penney last year sold the huge office center on Legacy Drive west of the Dallas North Tollway to a real estate investment partnership headed by Dallas investor Sam Ware.NTT Data - which has its U.S. headquarters in the nearby One Legacy West office tower on - is considering a lease of about 250,000 square feet of space in the Penney campus, property brokers say.The office space would be used to house workers NTT Data wants to locate closer to its head office.If completed the transaction would be one of the biggest office leases in North Texas so far this year.NTT Data representatives said the firm isn't ready to talk about pending transactions."Nothing is official at this point," said spokeswoman Corie Pierce " We are looking at options."The new owners of the Penney campus are spending more than $60 million to update the 1990s buildings and convert them into a multi-tenant office center.Penney will downsize into the north end of the 1.8 million square-foot complex, leaving vacant more than 600,000 square feet. It's the largest block of available office space in Legacy business park.In January, NTT Data rented office space for more than 600 people in the new One Legacy West tower at Legacy Drive and State Highway 121. The company consolidated workers from several locations in Plano and elsewhere.NTT DATA - a company formed by Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. - several years ago moved its U.S. headquarters from Boston to Plano.It is one of the top global business and technology services providers with more than 100,000 employees in about 50 countries.Just last month Texas Gov. Greg Abbott awarded NTT Data a $7.5 million state grant for its Plano offices. The governor said that the move would create 6,377 new jobs and represented a capital investment of more than $28 million.Along with its offices in Legacy business park, NTT Data has a large data processing and office center on Plano's south side at State Highway 190 and Custer Road. Some of the workers in that office center - which formerly housed Perot Data Systems - could be moved to the new Plano office is the lease is completed.  Continue reading...

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