Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The Forums at the Riverwalk office building gets a facelift

Photo courtesy of Dennis Heckman

An office building in the heart of Flower Mound “was basically forgotten” until a local couple bought it and recently gave it a much-needed facelift.

The Forums office building was built in 1984 on FM 1171 near what is now the Flower Mound River Walk. The 30,000-square-foot two-story building sat on 3.5 acres as the town grew up around it, and in recent years it had come to need a lot of cosmetic updates while also struggling to maintain a g00d occupancy rate.

“When you have older building and so many things change, it can get lost and fall through the cracks,” Faith Heckman said.

Dennis and Faith Heckman were family farmers in the Texas Panhandle until they decided to sell the farm, move to Dallas-Fort Worth and begin working in real estate in 2006, just before the great recession of 2008. Business was slow for a while, but as the market came back to life and the Heckmans’ business picked up, they began considering purchasing The Forums building in Flower Mound in 2013.

“We were looking for investments that have very good locations and that are going to get better, like the River Walk,” Dennis Heckman said.

Interior shot of The Forums at the Riverwalk (photo courtesy of Dennis Heckman)

They purchased the building in 2015 and spent about two years remodeling the common areas “to bring it up to date,” Faith Heckman said. “It has good classical structure,” so the renovations were primarily focused on cosmetic changes such as carpet, wallpaper, paint and lighting.

The building was only at 30 percent occupancy when the Heckmans bought it three years ago, but soon after the Heckmans celebrated the building’s grand re-opening earlier this summer, they have reached an 82 percent occupancy rate.

“Considering where it was, that has been great,” Faith said.

The building’s newest tenant, Hitachi Capital America Corp Transportation Finance, is expected to move in in September once the remodeling of the last empty suites is completed.

After buying the property, the Heckmans decided to change the name to The Forums at the Riverwalk, to give people who haven’t been there a good idea of where it is. It’s located in the northeast corner of FM 1171 and River Walk Drive, 3700 River Walk Drive. It is one of the few office buildings with the corporate campus ambience in Flower Mound.

“They’re not building this style anymore,” Faith said.

The Heckmans, who live in Flower Mound, decided to set up their office in The Forums at the Riverwalk building. They’ve become involved with the local Chamber of Commerce and are active in the Flower Mound community, unlike the previous owners, who lived far away from DFW. Having this strong connection to the town and the building means the Heckmans have a higher standard for potential tenants.

“We want tenants who are involved in the community,” Dennis Heckman said. “This is our home base. We didn’t buy it to just upgrade it and flip it, it’s a longterm investment so we want to make sure the tenants are good for Flower Mound and that the town is good for them.”

Dennis said the building has “done everything we expected or better,” and their hopes are high for when the River Walk is completed.

For leasing information, call Faith Heckman at 469-865-6898 or Russ Webb with Silver Oak Commercial at 817-849-8282. Click here for the building’s Facebook page.

Mark Smith
Mark Smith
Mark Smith is the Digital Editor of The Cross Timbers Gazette.

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