Garland / Northeast Dallas Is Where Tenants Pay More for Older Buildings, and the Reason Isn't Mysterious

Most tenants who call us about Garland / Northeast Dallas start with the same complaint. The rent is higher than South Dallas, the buildings are older than Alliance, and the docks are not always where they'd like them. Then they sign anyway. That tells you something.

Here is what the numbers look like. Transwestern's Q2 2026 factsheet put Northeast Dallas at the top of the metro on overall submarket rent, roughly $11.96 per square foot, and other trackers show the submarket running around 6 to 7 percent vacancy with about 1.6 million square feet of net absorption through the first half of the year. Compare that to a metro that CBRE has sitting near 7.8 percent in Q3, with asking rents at a record of about $10.36 per Matthews. Northeast Dallas is tighter and costs more. Both things are true at the same time.

Why? Location, plain and simple. You are minutes from President George Bush Turnpike, I-30, and I-635, with a deep workforce in Garland, Rowlett, Sachse, Richardson, and Mesquite within a short drive. If you serve Collin County and the north Dallas suburbs, you save real money on last-mile miles. A tenant running 20 trucks a day feels that in fuel and driver hours long before the lease rate shows up in a budget meeting.

The catch is the product. A lot of this inventory is 1970s through 1990s construction, with 18 to 24 foot clear heights, smaller bays, and tight truck courts. If you need 32 foot clear and 185 foot truck courts, you will not find it here, and you should be looking at Alliance or South Dallas instead. If you run light assembly, distribution to the northern suburbs, contractor space, or e-commerce fulfillment under 100,000 square feet, this is a very good fit.

And there is room to negotiate, which surprises people. Only about 1.2 million square feet is under construction in the submarket, around 2 percent of inventory, so new competition is thin. But older landlords with a building that has sat 90 days are often more flexible on free rent and tenant improvement dollars than the owner of a brand new building at Alliance who has three other prospects. Ask about roof age, dock leveler condition, and who pays for the sprinkler upgrade before you argue about the base rate. That is where the real money hides.

My take: Garland and Northeast Dallas will stay expensive relative to the rest of the metro because the supply simply can't be rebuilt in the same places. If your operation depends on the north and east Dallas customer base, pay the premium on the location and spend your negotiating energy on term, concessions, and building condition. Do not go in trying to win on rate alone.