How HPI Scaled a Client from 8K to 43K SF Without Costing Them Their Employees

Most office searches are run for the executives who sign the lease. This one was run for the people who would have to drive to it every day.

When a venture-backed freight technology company quickly outgrew its 8,000-square-foot office, the search was not only about square footage or rental rates. This was a company that had scaled fast, growing in just a few years to serve more than 1,050 freight brokers, including 70 of the top 100 in the U.S. The search was about whether a new address would quietly cost the company its people, and a longer commute is the kind of resignation letter no one hopes to receive.

That made the search less of a real estate exercise and more a question of how a leadership team could see the trade-offs clearly, together, before committing to a decision that would affect their entire company.

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The Firm

HPI Real Estate Services & Investments is a Texas-based, full-service commercial real estate firm with more than 30 years of experience developing, managing, and investing in commercial real estate. Today, HPI supports over 900 clients and customers across more than 30 million square feet, reflecting its long-standing reputation for performance, partnership, and market expertise.

That growth is no accident. HPI has built its reputation on pairing deep market expertise with modern technology, putting the latest tools to work for its clients. That forward-looking approach is exactly the kind of edge that has kept the firm expanding for three decades.

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The Broker

John Stollenwerck began his career at HPI as an analyst and quickly rose to the rank of tenant-rep broker. He is the kind of tech-enabled advisor who puts the best available tools in front of his clients from day one.

On this search, Stollenwerck worked alongside Hunter Lee, Partner and Senior Executive Managing Director of HPI's Dallas office. Lee joined HPI in 2015 and, under his leadership, has significantly grown the Dallas office, giving the team the market depth this expansion would demand.

The Challenge

At its expansion stage, the client was rapidly outgrowing its 8,000-square-foot office and needed to scale to 43,000 square feet, with room to reach 80,000 within three years. Finding a single block of space that size in a Dallas submarket was the central challenge, requiring constant monitoring of off-market options and granular detail on buildings and their landlords to ensure the right space could grow alongside their company.

In the Dallas market, demand for office space continued to outpace supply. Finding a large, contiguous block of space in a submarket means competing for inventory that doesn't stay available for long, making it crucial to track off-market options.

One factor mattered above almost all others to the Head of HR: the commute their employees would face after an office relocation.

The Solution

Finding a single 43,000-square-foot block in a Dallas submarket is difficult. Finding one while tracking off-market options, running the search around every employee's commute, and maintaining alignment amongst leadership over an entire year is even harder.

This is where being a tech-enabled brokerage changed what was possible. With ScoutSpace, key information is ingested in seconds, and a client-facing survey is ready to share as a live link within minutes. That speed gave Stollenwerck the room to give this search the attention it demanded, without shortchanging his other clients.

For the client's leadership team, the experience changed on their side of the table as well. The team reviewed their options through a single live link they could open at their convenience, seeing each property clearly and in context. As the search evolved, so did the story.

That mattered most where the stakes were highest: the commute. The client's Head of HR was not evaluating buildings in the abstract. She was evaluating what a move would mean for specific employee groups, and she needed her fellow executives to see the same picture she did.

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This was really helpful. We were very mindful not to overly burden employees with the office relocation. We ran several versions of the search to provide the exec team with a full view when making this decision. Having the flexibility to edit the parameters depending on the employee set we wanted to see was extremely helpful. — Head of HR

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The commute analysis let the team rule buildings in and out on logistics before booking the initial tour. It sent the CFO, COO, and Head of HR on every tour, already informed about the property, space, and its amenities, arriving with targeted questions for the brokers rather than first impressions.

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I enjoyed having a live link and changing those parameters to share with the exec team as our search evolved. A lot of work goes into reviewing and culling options for the exec team. The more you can do that work for them on the front end with specific detail, the better. — Head of HR

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The Results

Just as importantly, the leadership team made that commitment with a shared, clear-eyed view of what it would mean for their people. The decision held up because everyone at the table had seen the same thing.

The client secured a Class A building acquired by a new owner planning a full amenity renovation, with room to scale from 43,000 toward 80,000 square feet as the company grows. Those planned improvements were shared with the client during the search, so the leadership team could picture not just the space they were signing, but the environment it would become.

The Takeaway

Outgrowing your office is a good problem to have. Surviving the search, on a tight timeline, in a market where the right block of space doesn't wait, is the harder one. This search delivered on both counts: the client landed a home it can grow into and a motivated, unburdened workforce.

What made the difference was not just the space at the end, but how the decision got made. A leadership team saw the same clear picture at the same time, weighed what a move would mean for every employee before committing, and never had to look outside the market survey to decide. That is what a modern, tech-enabled brokerage makes possible, and it is the kind of experience that has kept HPI growing for three decades.