Exclusive: SoftLayer to double its Dallas headquarters; add 250 jobs

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Stanford Corporate Center will house the new corporate headquarters for SoftLayer once the company moves into the building in February 2015.

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Candace Carlisle

Staff Writer- Dallas Business Journal

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It's been more than a year since Dallas-based cloud infrastructure provider SoftLayer was bought by IBM (NYSE: IBM) for a reported $2 billion, in a deal that kicked off a global growth spurt and has spurred the company to double the size of its headquarters.

That aggressive growth plan — fueled by a $1.2 billion investment by IBM to expand the company's cloud infrastructure— led up to SoftLayer needing to relocate and double the size of its corporate headquarters, SoftLayer COO Francisco Romero told the Dallas Business Journal in an exclusive interview.

"This $1.2 billion investment in SoftLayer to grow and expand led us to needing staff to support those new operations," Romero told me. "We expected to almost double this year, and almost double again next year."

At the beginning of the year, SoftLayer employed 250 people at its Dallas office, but Romero expects that number to grow to about 500 employees. By next year, SoftLayer could top nearly 800 workers, he told me.

In Dallas, SoftLayer expects to hire workers to fill 250 new jobs by the end of 2015, he added.

"We are at capacity, that's why we are moving into more space," Romero said. "We plan to be in aggressive growth mode in the next three to five years."

SoftLayer's expansion matches the cloud infrastructure industry, which has grown tremendously in the past few years as traditional IT shifts to the cloud. For companies needing IT infrastructure, but don't want to invest in infrastructure — SoftLayer gives them an economical solution to rent their infrastructure, Romero said.

The company has leased 125,000 square feet of space at Stanford Corporate Center at 14001 North Dallas Parkway, which doubles SoftLayer's existing space from 63,000 square feet of office space. SoftLayer plans to consolidate its offices into its new Dallas headquarters in February 2015.

Clay Vaughn, Steve Rigby and Mike Cleary of CBRE represented SoftLayer in its real estate search. Jerry Averyt of Henry S. Miller Brokerage and Greg Trout represented the landlord, TCI Stanford LLC.

For SoftLayer, it was extremely important to get the company's employees under one roof, said Vaughn, a senior vice president at CBRE and co-leader of the firm's technology and media practice.

Vaughn has been SoftLayer's broker since 2006 when the company had eight employees and leased a 2,500-square-foot office.

"The fast-growing tech groups don't want to be in separate facilities, it can destroy the company culture," Vaughn told me. "And this is the fastest-growing company I've ever worked with."

Finding a large block of contiguous office space in the lower Dallas North Tollway market wasn't easy, he said. But SoftLayer was able to secure an office that fit the company's needs at Stanford Corporate Center.

The tower had vacant space that previously housed Encana Oil & Gas roughly two years ago. Since the oil and gas company left the building, it decided to exit the North Texas market.

"They will office on six floors with some mezzanine space on floors five to 10," said Averyt, a senior vice president at Henry S. Miller Brokerage. "They also have the option of taking down the fourth floor until the middle of July next year ... and once they get here and become operational, that could conceivably happen."

The expansion of SoftLayer is reflective of the broader economy, said Greg Miller, president and CEO of the Henry S. Miller Cos., which also offices at Stanford Corporate Center.

"I believe that corporate America is back in business and in growth mode," Miller told me. "The demand for office space is continuing to grow as Dallas grows and creates jobs. We're seeing a big demand for office space all over the Metroplex."

As part of the real estate deal, SoftLayer will receive top-of-building signage on the east and west sides of the office building along the Dallas North Tollway.

Candace covers commercial and residential real estate and sports business.