M Financial Group, a large financial services firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon, has signed a lease to open its first Dallas office at Stream Realty Partners’ The QUAD development at 2699 Howell St., Stream announced Thursday.

M Financial Group, which announced two weeks ago that it was opening a Dallas location, is a financial services company with a network of more than 130 independent member firms in 36 U.S. states and in the U.K.

The lease is for roughly 52,000 square feet in the 12-story office building under construction in the heart of Uptown Dallas.

“Our expansion into Dallas gives us a more centralized location to better serve our wide-ranging community of Member Firms and their clients,” M Financial President and CEO Russell Bundschuh said in a statement.

Bundschuh said The QUAD gives the firm “the best of both worlds.” The location in Uptown Dallas is surrounded by a “flourishing financial services sector and all the benefits that provides.”

Construction at The Quad. The 12-story office building is set to complete in March 2024. [Photo: Stream Realty Partners]

First office outside Portland base

M Financial, based in Portland since its incorporation in 1978, said the expansion to Dallas represents its first foothold outside of the Portland area.

The QUAD, a development project branded by Stream Realty Partners as the dawning of “a different Dallas,” broke ground in 2022. The project site was once home to the Quadrangle, Dallas’ first mixed-use development, which dates back to 1966.

Set for completion in March 2024, M Financial Group is set to call it home. The move to the distinctive QUAD building in Dallas’ Uptown could be a fitting next chapter for the firm founded by industry pioneers.

The 45-year-old financial firm built by Eli Morgan, Mark Solomon, Carl Mammel, and Peter Mullin — “the four Ms who make up the heart and soul of M Financial Group — brought the vision, the fortitude, and the boldness to disrupt a more-than-a-century-old industry that had slipped into complacency,” Bundschuh said.

The firm is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, and recently commemorated the innovation and entrepreneurism of “The Four Ms” in a mural installed at its Portland office.

M Financial Group industry innovators Eli Morgan, Mark Solomon, Carl Mammel, and Peter Mullin in a new mural at the company’s Portland headquarters. Image: video screenshot]

M Financial Group operates a network of firms specializing in comprehensive financial services. Through its network of independent firms, the firm provides customized insurance and executive benefit solutions to high-net-worth individuals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and Fortune 1000 companies.

More on The QUAD

“We place a high degree of intensity on anything we do in Uptown because it’s integral to our reputation as the largest home-grown commercial real estate service provider in Dallas,” said Stream co-founder Mike McVean, at the project groundbreaking last year.

“The QUAD is the largest single investment we’ve ever made in Dallas. If you’re not a big player in the urban core of your home market, then you’re not a player.”

The QUAD is a 345,425-square-foot, state-of-the-art office building and surrounding 18,500-square-foot retail area.

“We’ve received a strong response from the market on the offering at The QUAD, particularly as it relates to the building’s differentiated design, amenities, and technology,” Ramsey March, executive managing director & partner of development at Stream, said in a statement. “As we prepare to open the building early next year, the lease with M Financial is indicative of leasing momentum we expect to accelerate as tenants get a glimpse of the finished product.”

Stream said that M Financial is the third office tenant to sign a lease in The QUAD.

Other leases secured

Earlier this year, Revantage, a Blackstone Real Estate portfolio company, agreed to take 32,000 square feet at the development. Chicago Title, the largest title insurer and provider of real-estate-related products, was the first office tenant to commit to the project, agreeing to occupy 21,000 square feet.

Also, Two Hands, a community-focused eatery based in Australian café culture, was the first retail tenant to sign a lease. 

Stream said it will announce the remainder of the restaurant lineup later this fall.

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