After months of speculation, accounting giant Ernst & Young LLP confirmed Thursday that it will move its North Texas headquarters to the Victory project near downtown.

Ernst & Young will lease about 150,000 square feet in the One Victory Park building, which is under construction just north of Woodall Rodgers Freeway. The company will move into the 20-story building in July 2009 – that's when its lease expires at 2100 Ross Ave. downtown.

More than 1,200 employees work in the tower at Ross and Pearl Street. An additional 300 are in another building on Main Street.

"We are very pleased to join other well-established Dallas companies in making the exciting move to Victory Park," Ernst & Young managing partner Clint McDonnough said in announcing the planned move.

He said the mixed-use Victory project's amenities such as housing and retail space will help the company attract and retain employees.

Other tenants in the building will include law firm Haynes & Boone LLP and PlainsCapital Bank.

With the project 85 percent leased, Victory developer Hillwood is already eyeing another office tower next door.

"We are in the design phase right now for the second building," said Hillwood's Bill Brokaw. "We see quite a bit of demand out there – and not just from the downtown area.

"We are still a year from delivery of the first building, and we are ready to go with the next one."

Real estate brokers CB Richard Ellis and Staubach Co. negotiated Ernst & Young's new lease with the building's developers, Hillwood and Hines.