BentleyForbes may buy Woodall Rodgers Tower

A California real estate investor is negotiating to purchase an Uptown high-rise on the north edge of downtown.

The 16-story Woodall Rodgers Tower is across the freeway from the Arts District on Akard Street.

BentleyForbes -- a Los Angeles-based company that already owns several buildings in the Dallas area -- has contracted to purchase the 22-year-old office building.

Real estate brokers say that the tower is expected to fetch close to $200 per square foot.

Officials with BentleyForbes did not reply to requests for comment.

For the last five years, the building has been owned by a Dallas real estate partnership that paid about $14 million for the 156,000-square-foot property.

Since then, the nearby Arts District and surrounding Uptown neighborhood have boomed with construction.

Just across the freeway from Woodall Rodgers Tower is the new office tower home of Hunt Consolidated. And behind the building on McKinney Avenue, construction is under way on a high-rise apartment project.

BentleyForbes is a private real estate investor that owns four office buildings in the Preston Center area of North Dallas. The company also owns the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Las Colinas.