After a thorough search, Brinker International Inc. has selected Cypress Waters in Dallas as the home for its new headquarters and restaurant support center. The leading casual dining restaurant company behind Chili’s® Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy® will occupy a 216,300-square-foot, four-story, custom build-to-suit building that will sit along North Lake within the development’s centerpiece, called The Sound.

“Our move to Cypress Waters allows us to build and custom design a new campus that provides an inspiring and collaborative environment for our ‘BrinkerHeads,’” said Wyman Roberts, CEO and president of Brinker.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Rick Hughes, Executive Managing Director, Maureen Kelly Cooper, Senior Managing Director, and Robbie Baty, Senior Director, represented Brinker International.

Brinker has occupied space in a four-building complex along LBJ Freeway in Dallas since the 1980s. A top priority was finding an opportunity that would provide the right environment, Hughes said. “Brinker is known for its amazing culture,” he said. “It sought a location that would provide a campus feel to promote and support the close-knit camaraderie of its team members.”

Cushman & Wakefield led a comprehensive search that extended from the northern suburbs to downtown Dallas and westward along LBJ Freeway. Cypress Waters stood out for its deep base of amenities. Along with a wide variety of restaurants, outdoor features include hiking and biking trails, parks, and a lakefront amphitheater and piazza, where Brinker can host company events. The company will be the first to have a waterside office within The Sound.

The move will support teamwork, as the company will go from occupying four separate buildings to having all ‘BrinkerHeads’ under one roof. It also will allow Brinker to maintain its headquarters in Dallas, where it has been based since its first Chili’s restaurant opened on Greenville Avenue in 1975. More than 500 team members will relocate to the new headquarters, which will include a state-of-the-art test kitchen, when it’s completed in late 2018 or early 2019.

The Sound will serve as the town center for Cypress Waters, said Lucy Burns, Partner at Billingsley Co. “When we were planning the area, we knew the unique nature of having so many amenities right on the water’s edge was going to be appealing to many companies, so having a global brand with a rich Dallas history like Brinker is a perfect fit.” 

Brinker will join the ranks of companies like 7-Eleven, CoreLogic, OneSource, Toyota Finance, and BT Americas, who already call Cypress Waters home. “We have had unprecedented interest in Cypress Waters” said Marijke Lantz, Senior Vice President of Investments and Build to Suits at Billingsley. “This particular building will not only have amazing lake views, but also prime visibility from Olympus Road, which will eventually become a major thoroughfare connecting Belt Line Road to LBJ Freeway.”

Strong interest in The Sound has spurred the developer to begin construction on a speculative building next to the new Brinker headquarters. “By 2018, The Sound will be a bustling community of retail, office, and multifamily,” Lantz said.