Georgia

Main Street is making a comeback, and this is not news by any means. This growing trend is not only affecting real estate in the greater Atlanta area, but also throughout the United States. Main Street’s demise began with the design of President Eisenhower’s interstate highway system. It allowed travelers to bypass once sustaining rural towns and divided urban cities in their hearts. In Atlanta, it’s easy to notice with the unconscionable prejudice that comes with the interstates that divide our city compounded by the inefficiency of MARTA. The fall of Main Street was further catalyzed by the rise of the service-based economy and exportation of U.S. manufacturing to low cost nations, allowing larger retailers to capitalize and increase their market share by selling low-cost goods. Increasing affordability, especially for consumer goods, is great for everyone -— no one wants to be digging out of their savings for daily necessities — especially in a time when almost half the country cannot afford a $400 medical bill. However, this increased our fascination with saving on discretionary spending and led to increased demand for the “big-box” store. Large retailers’ capitalization on this trend led to increased foot traffic to their centers. Developers’ …

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ATLANTA — Jamestown has acquired The Shops Buckhead Atlanta, a 355,646-square-foot retail and office property in Atlanta’s Buckhead district. Situated along Peachtree Road and bounded by Pharr Road and Buckhead Avenue, The Shops Buckhead Atlanta is home to international retail brands such as Hermès and Tom Ford, as well as restaurants, entertainment and fitness tenants. The office space is fully leased to two tenants, Spanx’s global headquarters and No18, the first U.S. coworking location. Additionally, the property includes two prime development sites totaling 2.7 acres. OliverMcMillan developed the upscale, six-block property in 2014. In 2018, Brookfield Residential purchased OliverMcMillan and certain assets in its portfolio, which did not include Shops Buckhead Atlanta. Richard Reid, Trey Morsbach, Barry Brown, Jim Hamilton and Mike Allison of JLL represented the seller, an institutional joint venture, in the transaction. Atlanta-based Jamestown, which developed Ponce City Market and Manhattan’s Chelsea Market, will host a series of town hall meetings in the coming weeks that will be open to the community.

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MORROW, GA. — XPO Logistics has leased an additional 265,163 square feet of industrial space within Mt. Zion Industrial Center in Morrow. The third-party logistics provider now occupies 519,521 square feet of space in the center. The landlord, Woodmont Industrial Partners (WIP), acquired the center in February 2018 and implemented capital improvements that included the upgrade of new dock equipment, new roof, office upgrades, life safety system improvements, floor upgrades, interior and exterior painting and new landscaping. XPO signed a 254,358-square-foot lease the same year. NAI Brannen Goddard represented WIP in both transactions. Mt. Zion Industrial Center is situated 10 miles from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and 20 miles from downtown Atlanta. The property features 72 dock doors, two drive-in doors, 22-foot clear heights, a five-inch-thick concrete floor and parking for 110 trailers.

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ATLANTA — GPC Partners has acquired Alexan on Krog, a 222-unit multifamily community situated along the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail and near Krog Street Market. Rule Joy Trammell Rubio (RJTR) developed the property, which opened in 2015. Located at 44 Krog St. NE in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood, the property offers one- and two-bedroom floor plans, as well as communal amenities such as a clubhouse, business center, bark park, rooftop terrace, courtyard, pet washing station and a saltwater pool. GPC Partners will rebrand the property as Ayla on Krog. An undisclosed insurance company provided Miami-based GPC with a $42 million acquisition loan. JLL represented the borrower in obtaining the loan. The seller was not disclosed.

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HINESVILLE, GA. — Cohen Financial, a division of SunTrust Bank, has arranged a $17.1 million acquisition loan for Oglethorpe Square in Hinesville. Goldman Sachs provided the 10-year loan to an undisclosed borrower. Hutton sold the property for $24 million. Situated about 40 miles southwest of downtown Savannah, the 159,329-square-foot Oglethorpe Square, which Hutton completed in March 2017, is a fully leased retail center with tenants including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hobby Lobby, T.J. Maxx and Ulta Beauty. Drew Fleming, Mark Joines and Henry Kushner of Newmark Knight Frank represented the seller in the transaction.

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8West. Star Metals. Coda. These are the some of the names of Atlanta’s biggest office developments and the city’s largest undertakings. Measuring more than 1 million square feet of Class A office space between them, Midtown Atlanta’s skyscraper scene is about to be drastically altered. The gravity of these major mixed-use properties, along with the allure of top talent at nearby universities like Georgia Tech, gives the Midtown submarket an increase in both developer activity and price-per-square-foot rates. The Midtown/Perishing Point Class A office space average is $35 per square foot, higher than the Atlanta-area average of $29.79 per square foot. However, buildings like Star Metals and Coda are not designed with just any tenant in mind. Speculative developments in the Atlanta market have come to a standing halt as most offices in the region are now built to fit a specific company’s needs, rather than spaces built with the hope the right tenant will come along. Most larger new developments are either a build-to-suit for a specific tenant or are anchored by a tenant that is taking up the majority of the space. Additionally, with lower required returns from REITs and the private sector, finding capital is not nearly …

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STONE MOUNTAIN, GA. — Seefried Industrial Properties will develop a 700,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Stone Mountain on the Gwinnett-DeKalb county line. Previously dubbed “Project Rocket,” the center will house 1,000 Amazon employees, who will pick, pack and ship customer orders. Jobs will include human resources, operations management, safety, security, finance and information technology. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Amazon could spend up to $200 million on the project. A timeline for completion was not disclosed.

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FOREST PARK, GA. — The Kroger Co. and Ocado, an online grocery retailer based in the United Kingdom, will build a $55 million customer fulfillment center in Forest Park that will create 400 jobs. According to Georgia’s governor’s office, the two companies could invest upwards of $121 million in the center. The announcement of the center, which will be an automated warehouse facility with digital and robotic capabilities, comes on the heels of Kroger and Ocado breaking ground on their first fulfillment center in Monroe, Ohio. The two companies have committed to build 20 centers across the country. This is the second announced center in the Southeast, following a center in Central Florida. The Forest Park customer fulfillment center will be located at 2000 Anvil Block Road within the Gillem Logistics Center and will occupy 375,000 square feet. Kroger already occupies a 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse within the same industrial park. A ground breaking is scheduled for later this year with completion slated for 2021.

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ATLANTA — WeWork has signed three office leases in metro Atlanta totaling 150,000 square feet. In the first lease, WeWork will occupy 35,000 square feet and all three stories of office space within a mixed-use project located at 120 W. Trinity Place in downtown Decatur. The space will accommodate 540 members. Atlanta-based Cousins Properties is developing the project, which will include 18,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 329 residential units and a parking deck, in addition to WeWork’s office space. Construction is expected for the first half of 2020. WeWork’s second lease is in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter district in Sandy Springs. The coworking company will lease 70,000 square feet of office space at 1155 Perimeter Center W. WeWork will occupy three floors and will accommodate 1,200 members. The space is expected to open in early 2020. WeWork also signed a 45,000-square-foot lease spanning two floors along the Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail near Ponce City Market. WeWork will occupy the space within the 725 Ponce project by the end of this year. Developer New City Properties plans to open 725 Ponce this fall. The project will comprise 370,000 square feet of office space and include an urban prototype Kroger …

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ATLANTA — WRS Inc. will bring a 351-room Yotel-branded hotel to Underground Atlanta, a four-block redevelopment in south downtown Atlanta. The hotel will offer 234 rooms for short-stay guests and 117 rooms, known as YotelPad, for long-stay guests. Construction is slated to begin in summer 2020 with delivery scheduled for fall 2022. The new Yotel will offer a grab-and-go café, swimming pool, rooftop terrace and bar, self-check-in kiosks and SmartBeds. When complete, Underground Atlanta will have more than 400,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, entertainment, office and residential space, according to WRS.

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