In the News: Sunwest Named Property Manager for Hillcrest Tower
New York-based commercial real estate investment firm Ascent Real Estate Advisors has acquired the 10-story Hillcrest Tower in north Dallas.
Ascent purchased the property at 12720 Hillcrest Road from Boston-based Albany Road Real Estate Partners, with the deal officially closing Oct. 21, the firm announced. The tower, spanning over 168,000 square feet, is 97% leased and has a roster of nearly 50 tenants.
No purchase price was disclosed and the transaction has not yet been recorded in county property records. The Dallas County Appraisal District values the land and the building at $17.8 million for tax purposes, but DCAD appraisals typically trail market values.
Ascent also announced it has selected Dallas-based Sunwest Real Estate Group to lead property management services and Dallas-based CBRE to handle leasing.
The sale comes a few months after Newmark Group listed the property for sale in June. Albany Road also owns the 448,000-square-foot Mockingbird Towers at 1341 W. Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, which it bought in 2020.
Hillcrest Tower, on the northeast corner of Hillcrest Road and Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, lies in the LBJ Freeway submarket, which has a total of 18.3 million square feet of office inventory and a relatively high total vacancy rate of 27.5%, according to third-quarter data from commercial real estate form JLL.
Ascent, a commercial real estate investment, development and consulting firm, has been an active investor in Dallas-Fort Worth for more than a decade. In March, Ascent in partnership with Dallas-based Pillar Commercial reacquired Rambler Park, a 310,943-square-foot, 14-story medical office tower. Ascent also previously owned DFW office buildings such as the roughly 94,000-square foot 5001 Statesman in Irving, the 192,000-square-foot Meadow Central office park in Dallas, and the more than 260,000-square-foot Midway Atriums office complex in Addison.
John Porges, principal of Ascent, said in a statement that Hillcrest is a property with a diverse tenant base in “one of the most sought-after areas of the city.” Porges told the Dallas Business Journal that the location of the tower’s location just inside LBJ Freeway and North Central Expressway is convenient for east-west commuters.
Roughly 20% of the building is made up of medical tenants and a large chunk of the building’s tenants signed leases after COVID to renew or expand their office space, Porges said. In a statement, Ascent said the building has posted strong leasing activity in recent years, with nearly 150,000 square feet of new and renewal leases since 2020.
Hillcrest Tower was built in 1982 and renovated in 2022. Ascent plans to build upon prior upgrades by refreshing the common areas, enhancing the exterior landscaping and continuing to invest in move-in-ready speculative suites.
Renovations are planned for the main lobby as well as the lobby to each individual floor, Porges said. He declined to disclose the estimated cost of the renovations, but Porges said work will begin in the second quarter of 2026.
Marc Grossfeld, managing principal of Sunwest Real Estate Group, whose firm will serve as property manager, said any upgrades from Ascent will help keep the property relevant amidst a competitive North Dallas market, citing the nearby Preston Center office submarket as a chief rival for new tenants.
Hillcrest Tower is located near NorthPark Center, Preston Center, Galleria Dallas and is just north of the former Valley View Center site that could be home of the Dallas Mavericks’ new arena and entertainment district. The Mavs recently began the process to rezone 112 acres of the former mall site, looking to amend an existing planned development and create a new subdistrict for the new sports and entertainment district.
Ascent reviewed development coming around the site of Hillcrest Tower, including a nearby H-E-B and the potential Mavs arena, Porges said. He said Ascent welcomes any development in the area and is not worried about traffic or other impacts of a potential NBA arena nearby, calling it “positive to the area.”
By: Mike Albanese, Staff Writer Dallas Business Journal
October 22, 2026