Post by Candace Carlisle of Dallas Business Journal
It’s been four years since Dallas-based data communications equipment provider General Datatech LP moved into its 100,000-square-foot corporate headquarters off Stemmons Freeway.
Now, founder and CEO J.W. Roberts says his company is on the fast track to growth, with plans to add 180 employees next year and double the company’s corporate campus.
“We’ve been growing 40 percent each year, and now we have 400-plus people from coast-to-coast,” Roberts told theDallas Business Journal. “There’s going to continue to be a demand on data communications equipment … there’s so much data being tossed around.”
To help meet that demand, Roberts is in the process of acquiring two adjacent properties to the corporate office at 999 Metro Media Place.
The two properties — 8000 and 8120 Ambassador Row — will double the company’s corporate footprint to 200,000 square feet. The expansion will help General Datatech, which partners with companies such as Cisco, to provide more data and voice communication equipment and services.
The plan is to create a corporate campus environment welcoming employees and customers.
Roberts says he plans to renovate the two buildings much as the company renovated a former dairy plant building into its two-story corporate office building in 2009.
The redo of the 1959-era building landed LEED Gold status with features such as recycled concrete from Texas Stadium, solar energy panels and eight underground tanks to capture water for irrigation.
The “multimillion dollar” renovation is expected to begin in the near future. Roberts declined to comment on the investment into the renovations, but said the technology additions would be significant.
David Cooke of Avison Young’s Dallas office represented General Datatech in its expansion.
“This area (the Stemmons submarket) has notoriously had a low cost per square foot, and in the information technology business, which is one of the most highly competitive industries in the world, you’ve got to make sure your expenses are always in line and minimized,” Roberts told me.
