Georgia

ATLANTA — Barings Real Estate and Bank OZK has provided a $100 million construction loan to The Allen Morris Co. for Star Metals Offices, the office component of Star Metals, a $330 million mixed-use development in West Midtown Atlanta. Situated along Howell Mill Road, Star Metals Offices will span 267,000 square feet and is expected to deliver in fall 2020. Amenities will include 35,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, a 5,000-square-foot rooftop restaurant, five levels of parking, fitness center and locker rooms. Star Metals Offices is 25 percent preleased to Spaces, a coworking company backed by Regus. Oppenheim Architecture and Warner Summers Architecture designed the asset. MBR LLC, an affiliate of The Allen Morris Co. and ICM Asset Management Inc. provided equity in the project.

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ATLANTA — WeWork has signed a four-story, 40,000-square-foot lease at 881 Peachtree St. in Midtown Atlanta and will relocate its headquarters from its 1372 Peachtree location. The space will house more than 680 desks for WeWork members. WeWork 881 Peachtree is part of 881 Peachtree Street, a 29-story mixed-use project that Hanover Co. and The Loudermilk Cos. are co-developing. 881 Peachtree will offer 44,000 square feet of office space and 11,000 square feet of retail space.

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MARIETTA, GA. — Marietta Square Market, an 18,500-square-foot food hall, has opened at 68 N. Marietta Parkway NW in the Historic Marietta Square District. Concordia Properties LLC and Creative Culinary Ventures LLC developed the asset, which is located adjacent to historic railroad tracks, to resemble a turn-of-the-century train station. Marietta Square Market offers a central bar, indoor and outdoor seating and 20 vendors. Kelly Wilson of Ackerman Retail is handling leasing efforts for Marietta Square Market.

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ATLANTA — FCP has acquired Ashford Gardens, a 164-unit garden-style apartment community in Atlanta, for $23.1 million. Ashford Gardens offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans and community amenities such as a swimming pool, barbecue and picnic area and a playground. Situated at 2203 Plaster Road NE in northeast Atlanta, FCP will rebrand the property as Mirador at Peachtree. Andrew Mays and Matt White of Berkadia represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction.

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PALMETTO, GA. — PVH Corp., a global apparel company, has signed a 1 million-square-foot lease for a new distribution facility in Palmetto, about 27 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. The newly delivered facility is located within Shugart Farms, which Red Rock Developments built in partnership with Wharton Industrial and Starwood Capital Group. Brad Pope of JLL negotiated the 20-year lease transaction. Built on a speculative basis, the developers are underway on $77.6 million in tenant improvements for PVH. Formerly known as Phillips-Van Heusen, PVH manages a portfolio of clothing brands, including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, Izod, Arrow, Speedo, Warner’s, Olga, Geoffrey Beene and True&Co. By the end of the year, the new distribution center will create approximately 575 jobs once fully operational. PVH’s new facility is located along I-85, near to the CSX Fairburn Intermodal terminal and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The site is also about 250 miles from the Port of Savannah, a key factor in the selection of the facility, according to the developer. “When we began development on this spec building, we knew we had the key ingredients to meet the needs of a modern bulk tenant,” says John Barker Jr., president and chief development …

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DECATUR, GA. — Audubon has acquired The Flats at East Atlanta, a 140-unit apartment community in Decatur, for $16.8 million. The Flats offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. A $5 million renovation was recently completed at the property, which included upgrades to unit interiors and exteriors. Audubon plans to invest $770,000 into the property, including building a fitness center, an indoor mail room, new signage and washers and dryers in each unit. Richard Jordan of CBRE originated a 10-year Freddie Mac acquisition loan with a fixed 4.4 percent interest rate. The seller was not disclosed.

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ATLANTA — Somewhere between a branded hotel like Holiday Inn and a truly independent hotel lies the “soft-branded” hotel. These properties are pseudo-independent in that they don’t adhere to hotel brand standards but their owners can tap into the networks of established chains for resources like reservation software, loyalty programs and distribution channels. Owners franchise the hotel properties for a fee, but the operations and look more resemble an independent hotel, which is an attractive concept given how many travelers are looking for authentic experiences from their hotel stays. “Soft brands are the hot product in the hotel industry,” said Jeff Higley, vice president and editorial director of Hotel News Now/STR Global. Higley’s comments came during the 31st annual Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, which was held March 20-22 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta. The conference drew 1,850 attendees. Higley moderated a panel on the first day of the event that included executives from hotel brands and hospitality ownership and development firms. Evolution of soft brands According to lodging research and analytics firm STR, soft-branded hotels comprise a little more than 1.3 percent of all U.S. hotel rooms, but that figure is significant in that 11 years the …

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PENDERGRASS, GA. — Hillwood, a Dallas-based industrial owner and developer founded by Ross Perot Jr., has purchased Valentine 85 Logistics Center, a 1 million-square-foot distribution building in Pendergrass. Atlanta Business Chronicle reports the sales price was $44.9 million. The asset was recently delivered by a joint venture between San Antonio-based USAA Real Estate and Atlanta-based Seefried Industrial Partners. Valentine 85 features 40-foot clear heights, 50-foot-by-56-foot bays with 60-foot speed bays, 446 car parking spaces and 267 trailer parking spaces. The property is located at 117 Valentine Industrial Parkway near Interstate 85, about 28 miles north of Athens.

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NEWNAN AND LAWRENCEVILLE, GA. — Anchor Health Properties has acquired two fully leased medical office buildings (MOBs) in metro Atlanta on behalf of the Chestnut Healthcare Fund, a discretionary equity fund focused on the acquisition and development of medical office assets across the United States. The first property, 721 Wellness Way in Lawrenceville, is occupied by Northeast Endoscopy, which provides services including gastroenterology, imaging and family medicine. The asset is adjacent to Gwinnett Medical Center, which recently announced a merger to become Northside Hospital, and about 30 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The second property is situated at 7110 Newnan Crossing Bypass in Newnan, about 35 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. The Newnan property is adjacent to Piedmont Newnan Hospital and is occupied by Avail Dermatology. Colliers International represented the seller, an affiliate of Pace Lynch Realty, in the transaction. Synovus Bank provided acquisition financing on behalf of the buyer. The sales prices were not disclosed.

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ATLANTA AND DALLAS — Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ) and Dallas-based TIER REIT Inc. (NYSE: TIER), two of the larger office development and investment firms in the country, have entered into an all-stock merger agreement. The combined company, which will retain the Cousins name, will have an equity market capitalization of $5.9 billion and a total market cap of $7.8 billion. Following the merger, the company will continue to function as a Class A office REIT with a combined portfolio of approximately 21 million square feet spread across various markets in the Southeast and Southwest. Both firms are active in leading office markets like Atlanta, where Cousins is based, as well as Charlotte, Dallas and Austin. Cousins owns several trophy assets in Atlanta’s Buckhead area, including 3348 and 3350 Peachtree, which have about 670,000 square feet combined, as well as 816 Congress and 303 Colorado in downtown Austin. TIER REIT owns 3354 Peachtree, a 560,000-square-foot building in Atlanta, as well as the 40-story Burnett Plaza in Fort Worth and the 1.5 million-square-foot Domain office building in Austin. Under terms of the agreement, Cousins will issue 2.98 shares of common stock in exchange for each share of TIER stock. That rate …

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