“How long will Atlanta’s retail boom last?” That is the multibillion-dollar question everyone in the market is asking themselves. Nobody knows for sure, although there are many valid reasons to think that Atlanta will sustain its growth through 2018 and beyond. The state of Georgia has placed a strong emphasis on drawing technology companies to the state, and Atlanta’s tech boom has catapulted the city to the front of the race for Amazon’s $5 billion HQ2 project. The city already boasts the world’s busiest airport, which makes it easy for any company to relocate here because they can directly connect to anywhere in the world. Most recently, Facebook announced it will build a sprawling data center campus at Stanton Springs, about 40 miles east of Atlanta, and NCR Corp. recently opened its new headquarters campus in Midtown. The emerging tech community includes startup hubs such as Atlanta Tech Village, Switchyards Downtown Club, the upcoming Coda project at Tech Square and Advanced Technology Development Center, an affiliate of Georgia Tech. With elite local colleges like Georgia Tech, Emory University and the state’s flagship school, the University of Georgia, about 60 miles east in Athens rapidly producing new graduates, the city is …
ALPHARETTA, GA. — A joint venture between Hines and Cousins Properties will develop 10000 Avalon, a 251,000-square-foot, Class A office building in Alpharetta, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The new building will be the second and final office building within Avalon, a 2.4 million-square-foot mixed-use development. The total development cost for the building is expected to be $97 million. Cousins has a 90 percent ownership interest in the joint venture and Hines has a 10 percent ownership interest. AXIS Reinsurance Co. will anchor the new building, occupying 76,000 square feet. Sam Holmes of CBRE arranged the 15-year lease on behalf of the insurance company, which is a subsidiary of AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. Hines and Cousins will start construction on 10000 Avalon this month, with initial occupancy scheduled for early 2020. The building is located adjacent to 8000 Avalon, which Hines and Cousins delivered in June 2017. The building is currently 98 percent leased to tenants such as SAP, Microsoft and coworking operator Spaces.
ATLANTA — Hotel and brand management company Dream Hotel Group, in partnership with Atlanta-based Cartel Properties, has unveiled plans to develop Dream Atlanta, Buckhead. The 200-room hotel will be located near the intersection of Peachtree, Roswell and East Paces Ferry roads in Buckhead Village. In addition to guest suites, Dream Atlanta, Buckhead will feature 90 private residences, a spa and wellness concept and five dining and nightlife venues, including a 17,000-square-foot rooftop pool, bar and lounge. The dual-tower development will also include 80,000 square feet of additional office and retail space. New York-based Dream Hotel Group currently operates 18 hotels, with more than 20 others in various stages of development. Atlanta-based architecture firm Cooper Cary is designing Dream Atlanta, Buckhead, which is scheduled to open in 2021.
Construction Underway, First Tenants Announced at $40M Mixed-Use Project on Atlanta’s Upper Westside
ATLANTA — Eden Rock Real Estate Partners, in partnership with Stein Investment Group and Frank Buonanotte, has kicked off construction on Westside Village, a $40 million adaptive reuse project on Atlanta’s Upper Westside district. Redevelopment plans call for the transformation of the existing 51,000-square-foot warehouse building situated along Marietta Boulevard, the demolition of other smaller buildings and the new construction of three additional commercial buildings on the 10-acre site. The 100,000-square-foot development will also include 19 townhomes. The first announced tenants at the development are Primrose Schools, an early education and childcare provider, and The Refinery, a fitness training club. Primrose Schools will open a 12,400-square-foot facility, serving infants through Kindergarten-aged children. The Refinery will open an 11,700-square-foot facility that will offer adult fitness training, youth sports performance enhancement training, a private Pilates studio and a therapeutic “chiro-spa” for sports recovery, pain management and everyday wellness. Both tenants are expected to open at Westside Village in early 2019. Additional retailers, restaurant and service providers are expected to be announced within the next 60 days. Atlanta-based Shroeder Architects is the architect for the project, which is slated for completion by spring 2019.
SAVANNAH, GA. — GCP has acquired 150 Portside Court, an 800,000-square-foot industrial facility in Savannah, for $34.8 million. Located within the Port Logistics Center at Crossroads, the facility is less than five miles from the Port of Savannah. The building is fully leased to The Home Depot and is a key component of the home improvement retailer’s East Coast import distribution operation. The warehouse features front-loading configuration, 165-foot deep full concrete truck courts and 25-foot minimum clear heights. CBRE represented the seller, Duke Realty, in the transaction, and GCP was represented internally. Wells Fargo Bank provided acquisition financing on behalf of GCP. The acquisition increases the Birmingham-based company’s portfolio to more than 8.1 million square feet.
Atlanta is the logistics hub and economic engine of the Southeast, which is the fastest growing region in the country. Its 700 million square feet of industrial space makes it the fifth largest logistics market in the United States. Traditionally, population and job growth are key drivers of industrial demand, and Atlanta has had strong growth in each. The metro added 78,000 people in 2017, or nearly 214 new residents every day, which is reminiscent of the solid population growth of the 1990s when Atlanta averaged nearly 100,000 new residents every year. Additionally, Atlanta has had solid job growth, growing 2.5 percent last year, second only to Dallas/Fort Worth among the 12 largest metro areas in the U.S. E-commerce has caused a surge in demand for industrial space that has benefitted the Atlanta industrial market. Online retail sales now make up over 9 percent of total retail sales, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, up from 5 percent in 2012. A recent report from Cushman & Wakefield stated that while e-commerce accounted for just 5 percent of leases in 2013, it now commands over 20 percent of all warehouse leasing. As Amazon and others ramp up delivery times from two-day …
DUNWOODY, GA. — Apple Hospitality REIT Inc. has acquired the 132-room Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Atlanta Perimeter Dunwoody for $29.5 million, or roughly $223,000 per room. The hotel, which opened in 2016, is located at 4565 Ashford Dunwoody Road, roughly 15 miles north of downtown Atlanta in the city’s Central Perimeter submarket. The name of the seller was not disclosed. The hotel features a business center, meeting rooms, fitness center and a pool. Following the acquisition, Apple Hospitality’s portfolio spans 243 hotels across 34 states.
Park Center is the largest ground-up corporate office project in metro Atlanta’s history. In early 2017, KDC broke ground on Park Center Phase II, which consists of two office towers totaling 1.1 million square feet, including approximately 40,000 square feet of retail space. The office towers will be leased by State Farm, which also leased the 21-story office tower in Phase I. Phase II of Park Center started with the implosion of the existing 240,000-square-foot, 10-story Hammond Exchange building on March 4, 2017. The remainder of 2017 was spent removing the debris from the implosion, blasting and removing over 300,000 cubic yards of rock, site grading, relocation and placement of utilities, and installation of tower cranes. In addition, construction started on the parking structure and building pad for Building 2. Several large culverts were constructed for a new road that will connect Perimeter Parkway in Dunwoody to Peachtree Dunwoody Road in Sandy Springs. Today, seven of the 11 parking levels of Building 2 have been poured, including the lobby level and vehicular-pedestrian plaza in front of it. Completion of the 660,000-square-foot, 22-story Building 2 is slated for the end of 2019. Work is also taking place on Building 3, including …
ATLANTA — North American Properties (NAP) has sold Anthem on Ashley, a 244-unit multifamily community in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, to Invesco Advisers Inc. Built in 2017 by NAP, the asset sold for $370 per square foot, a record price for wood-framed multifamily development in metro Atlanta. JLL Multifamily Investment Sales team represented NAP in the transaction. Located at the corner of Ashley Avenue and Ralph McGill Boulevard, the Class A community is located two blocks from Atlanta BeltLine’s Eastside Trail and is the only apartment community with direct access to Historic Fourth Ward Park. Community amenities include a saltwater pool with a sundeck and private cabanas; 24-hour fitness center with group classes; poolside club room and sky deck overlooking the park; outdoor grilling stations and a fire pit; clubhouse with bar lounge; bike storage; Wi-Fi enabled micro-offices; and an event stylist who programs resident experiences like wine tastings. NAP is continuing to develop Edge, a nearby apartment community that will open in December. The project will feature a pedestrian bridge over the BeltLine Eastside Trail and include 29,000 square feet of loft office, retail and restaurant space.
NEWNAN, GA. AND HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. — PointOne Holdings has broken ground on two multifamily communities in Georgia and North Carolina totaling 614 units. Combined, the projects are valued at $90 million. In the Atlanta metro of Newnan, PointOne started construction on The Promenade at Newnan Crossing, a 298-unit community comprising three-story apartments and townhomes. In the Raleigh-Durham suburb of Holly Springs, the South Florida-based apartment owner and developer has broken ground on The Exchange at Holly Springs, a 316-unit, garden-style property. PointOne expects the first residents of both apartment communities to move in during the second quarter of 2019.