BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Hunter Hotel Advisors has brokered the sale of the 205-room Hilton Birmingham Perimeter Park in Birmingham. The buyer, Atlanta-based Peachtree Hotel Group, purchased the eight-story hotel with plans to invest $10.5 million to renovate and reposition the property into a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel. The sales price and seller were undisclosed, but the Birmingham Business Journal reports the sale price as nearly $13.3 million.
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Dollar General has opened the company’s 13,000th location with a new store in Birmingham. The new store is located at 4132 Jefferson Ave. S.W. The Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based discount retail chain employs more than 6,500 employees in Alabama through 675 stores and its distribution center in Bessemer, which opened in 2012. The new Birmingham location is one of the planned 900 new stores that Dollar General has opened or will open in 2016 throughout the 43 states that the retailer currently serves.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — Crunkleton Commercial Real Estate Group has announced a new redevelopment of a vacant corner lot at Holmes Avenue and Greene Street in downtown Huntsville. Crunkleton is the leasing agent of the project, known as 225 Holmes. The property will span 32,000 square feet and feature shops, office space and possibly a rooftop restaurant or entertainment venue. Designed by architect Nola | VanPeursem, 225 Holmes will be situated across the street from Below the Radar, Sip and Old Town Beer Exchange. The development is expected to bring 150 to 200 daytime jobs to downtown Huntsville, according to Eric St. John of Crunkleton. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall, and the first anchor tenant for the building will be announced at the groundbreaking ceremony.
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Berkadia and Colliers International have brokered the sale of Colony Woods, a 414-unit apartment community located at 2000 Colony Park Drive near The Summit Birmingham. The sales price was $43 million, according to Al.com. Built in two phases in 1990 and 1995, the property last sold in October 2009 for $24.8 million. The previous owner, Nashville-based C-H Core I LLC, upgraded more than half of the units with new appliances and lighting packages prior to the sale. David Oakley of Berkadia represented the buyer, Forum RE Acquisitions LLC, in the transaction. Will Mathews of Colliers International’s Atlanta office represented the seller.
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — DRA Advisors LLC has sold The Colonnade, a 127,031-square-foot shopping center located at the intersection of Highway 280 and I-459 in Birmingham. The property is shadow-anchored by The Summit, Bayer Properties’ 981,714-square-foot regional mixed-use center. The Colonnade was 91 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Gold’s Gym, Edgar’s Old Style Bakery, Taziki’s Mediterranean Café, Scottrade, Cracker Barrel, Johnny Ray’s BBQ, Jimmy John’s, Asian Rim Sushi Co., Drapery Studio, Teach Me Beauty and Schaeffer Eye Center. Richard Reid and Jim Hamilton of HFF’s Atlanta office represented DRA Advisors in the sale of the property to Colonnade Retail Partners LLC, a group led by Shannon Waltchack, a Birmingham-based commercial real estate management firm. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Bayer Properties has placed a 125-acre tract of land across Highway 280 from The Summit Birmingham under contract. AT&T is selling a large portion of the tract in connection to its plan to relocate various offices within Birmingham. Bayer Properties plans to develop a project that will be complementary to The Summit and the surrounding area. The Summit’s tenant roster includes Belk, Gus Mayer, Saks Fifth Avenue, Anthropologie, Gap, J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, Carmike Summit 16, Orvis, lululemon athletica, Gymboree, Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn. Birmingham-based Bayer Properties currently owns and/or operates retail and office properties totaling approximately 10 million square feet, including The Summit in Birmingham.
PRATTVILLE, ALA. — Blue Rock Partners LLC has purchased the Highland Lakes Apartment Homes, a 224-unit complex located in the Montgomery suburb of Prattville, for $23.1 million. Blue Rock plans to rebrand the property as Prattville at Highland Lakes and invest $1 million in interior and exterior upgrades. Jimmy Adams and Craig Hey of Cushman & Wakefield’s Birmingham office represented the seller, Foshee Management Co. LLC, in the transaction. Arbor Mortgage provided acquisition financing on behalf of Blue Rock.
The real estate market in downtown Birmingham has followed the “chicken and egg” trend. Over the last few years, over a dozen multifamily projects have been announced, but the major hurdle is proving the demand as people moving downtown have wanted a downtown grocer. While some multifamily developers decided to proceed with construction, others waited on the sidelines hoping a grocer would announce a new downtown location. On the other hand, major grocers put off locating in downtown Birmingham due to the lack of people living in the general area. Problem solved when construction started last year on a new 30,000-square-foot Publix with a full-service pharmacy in downtown Birmingham. Developers Scott Bryant and Dick Schmalz announced that the Publix will anchor a new multi-story, mixed-used development. Publix considered a store in downtown Birmingham in 2007 and again in 2009 before finally deciding to bring a store downtown now. The development of the Parkside District with Railroad Park and Regions Field, along with existing and planned apartment projects in the area, contributed to the timing. With the addition of Publix, several other multifamily projects are well underway or completed, such as the 228-unit LIV Parkside, 332 total units next to Regions …
TALLADEGA, ALA. — The Cooper Commercial Investment Group has brokered the $2.1 million sale of Talladega Plaza, a 37,981-square-foot retail center located in Talladega. The center is shadow-anchored by a Walmart Supercenter. Dan Cooper of Cooper Commercial’s Cleveland office represented the seller, a private investor based in Alabama. The buyer is a private investor based in Kansas.
Pick up any Birmingham newspaper and the headlines will likely reveal plans for a historic building renovation, a new mixed-use development or a prominent Birmingham company expanding into the Central Business District (CBD). Birmingham has enjoyed a surge of development over the last few years, with nationally recognized projects such as Railroad Park and Regions Field, the renovations of prominent downtown buildings and the emergence of new districts throughout the city. With all the development going on, it’s no wonder that the Birmingham office market is thriving with investors taking an interest in many of the city’s best Class A properties. The years 2014 and 2015 marked a record number of Class A properties trading to prominent national investors, and the trend seems to be continuing into 2016. Over the past year, Hertz Investment Group expanded its Birmingham footprint to include Inverness Center (four buildings), the Wells Fargo Tower and the BB&T Bank Building, a total of more than 1 million square feet. The Matrix Group purchased the four-building portfolio Meadow Brook North, totaling more than 500,000 square feet. 2016 is off to a promising start with the sale of one of the Southern submarket’s most prominent buildings, the 211,335-square-foot …
