DORAVILLE, GA. — A fund sponsored by CBRE Investment Management closed on an $85.3 million mortgage loan to finance Atlanta-based Carroll’s acquisition of the 592-unit Arium Winters Chapel apartment community in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville. The floating-rate loan has an initial term of three years with a two-year extension option. The loan features future funding to finance the sponsor’s business plan. Robert Kadoori of CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance team in Atlanta arranged the loan on behalf of Carroll. Formerly known as Jasmine at Winters Chapel, Arium Winters Chapel is a garden-style property located at 4335 Winters Chapel Road and offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Units feature hardwood-style flooring, resurfaced cabinets, private balconies, tile backsplashes and washer/dryers in select units. Community amenities include a fitness center, two swimming pools, soccer field, picnic and grilling areas, two dog parks, playground, clubhouse, business center and controlled gated access.
Georgia
ATLANTA — Clarion Partners and Westbridge have broken ground on 926 Brady, an adaptive reuse project in Atlanta’s West Midtown district. The project will repurpose a 1930s-era warehouse into 36,000 square feet of creative office space, including a second-floor addition that gives the property a rooftop terrace. Architectural firm ai3 is the design lead for 926 Brady, and Gay Construction Co. is serving as the general contractor. The Transwestern team of Zach Wooten and Stephen Clifton is managing leasing. Construction is currently underway, with an estimated delivery in the second quarter of 2023. 926 Brady sits at the corner of 10th Street and Brady Avenue within Stockyards Atlanta, an adaptive reuse of the former stockyard and meatpacking plant called Miller Union Stockyards. Westbridge redeveloped the campus in 2017 and brought in a diverse tenant base, including Red Bull, Fitzco, Mannington Commercial, Painted Duck, Baffi Atlanta and Nick’s Westside.
Like much of the rest of the country, the Atlanta multifamily market has been white-hot with strong occupancies and rent growth that is contributing to outsized returns for owners, investors and developers. Recent increases in financing costs does not mean the music is stopping, but the tempo is slowing a bit. Atlanta’s multifamily fundamentals are still outstanding. Occupancies are holding strong and rents are continuing to rise. According to Northmarq’s fourth-quarter 2021 research, occupancy improved by 90 basis points while asking rents spiked by 15.9 percent at year-end. The compelling story fueling investor interest — growing demand and limited supply of housing options — remains firmly in place. In addition, there is plenty of investor appetite and capital available for multifamily assets for both debt and equity financing. The big change that has occurred over the past several weeks is the increasing cost of debt that will likely take some of the edge off what has been an ultra-aggressive investment sales market. The 10-year Treasury was 1.73 percent on March 1, 2022. At the end of April, it was 2.91 percent, a 118-basis-point increase in less than two months. Additionally, lender spreads have widened over this same period — 30 …
BRYAN COUNTY, GA. — Hyundai Motor Group will open a $5.5 billion manufacturing plant near the coastal Georgia city of Savannah that will be fully dedicated to production of electric vehicles, including batteries. Hyundai expects the facility to be operational within three years. In addition to Hyundai’s direct investment, various suppliers of the South Korean automaker will invest another $1 billion in the project. Between these initiatives, more than 8,000 new jobs are expected to be added to the local economy. Known as the Bryan County Megasite, the plant’s location spans nearly 3,000 acres. The site is adjacent to Interstate 16 and is proximate to both Interstate 95 and the Port of Savannah. The Port of Savannah is the fastest-growing container terminal in the country, according to the development team, and is served by two Class I railroads. A partnership between the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority (JDA) and the State of Georgia owns the Bryan County Megasite. The former entity comprises the development authorities of Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham and Effingham counties. The partnership has spent the last several years making infrastructural improvements to the site in order to improve speed-to-market functionalities for the end user. “From initial …
JACKSON, GA. — Procter & Gamble (P&G), a consumer goods manufacturer and distributor based in Cincinnati, plans to invest $205 million for a new automated distribution facility in Jackson. The 1 million-square-foot property will be located at 950 Logistics Parkway in Butts County, about 50 miles south of Atlanta near I-75. The global firm partnered with the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team, Development Authority of Butts County, Metro Atlanta Chamber, Georgia Ports Authority and Georgia Power on the project, which is expected to bring 350 new jobs to the trade area. The developer and a construction timeline were not disclosed. P&G’s brands include Crest, Pampers, Tide, Bounty, Charmin, Always, Gillette, Old Spice, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Cascade, Dawn, Febreeze, Mr. Clean and Swiffer, among others. In addition to the new Jackson facility, P&G operates a manufacturing facility in Albany, Ga., and a distribution center in metro Atlanta.
Walker & Dunlop Structures $47M in Construction Financing for The Line Apartments in Savannah
by John Nelson
SAVANNAH, GA. — Walker & Dunlop Inc. has arranged $47 million in financing for the development of The Line, a 219-unit multifamily project that is within the bounds of a designated opportunity zone in downtown Savannah. Walker & Dunlop arranged construction financing on behalf of the developer, Standard Communities. Financing was sourced from a regional life insurance company and includes both construction and permanent financing within a single loan. Situated just three blocks from the Savannah River, The Line will include two buildings and will feature a full upscale amenity package, including a terrace level with a pool, sundeck, fitness center and grill area. The Class A project will also include onsite parking, a clubroom with views of downtown Savannah and the Savannah River and resident storage.
Atlanta continues its streak as a high-growth market for retail. Low vacancy rates have turned up the competition for quality spaces among tenants and rents have continued to climb. Competition and a landlord’s market have sparked new trends as developers further refine their approach to finding retailers that drive traffic and retailers search for fertile and readily available locations, including submarkets outside the intown submarkets. Northeastern and West Coast brands have followed the trend of people moving to the Southeast, landing locations in suburban and exurban submarkets often filled with high-income, educated populations. As cities like Newnan, Cumming, Roswell, Woodstock, Peachtree City and Alpharetta see population density continue to grow, retail and restaurants are following. Suburbs and exurbs are also attracting urban dwellers from Atlanta seeking a quieter, yet similarly amenitized lifestyle they may have experienced closer to attractions like the Atlanta BeltLine. During the pandemic, people also got used to staying close to home and are now reluctant to drive far to take care of day-to-day needs and enjoy amenities, giving a boost to Ga. Highway 400 corridor developments like Avalon and Halcyon, as well as Ashley Park in Newnan. Unique offerings Hot trends emerging in Atlanta are “eatertainment,” …
DORAVILLE, GA. — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has arranged the $23.2 million sale of Doraville Plaza, a 190,167-square-foot shopping center in Doraville. The Burlington-anchored center is situated along Buford Highway near the interchange with I-285. A locally based group of investors purchased the asset from an entity doing business as Doraville Plaza Investors LLC, including the assumption of existing CMBS debt. Zach Taylor of IPA, who represented the seller in the transaction, says Doraville Plaza has future redevelopment potential. “CMBS debt assumptions are difficult and typically shrink the buyer pool. However, rising interest rates and the demand for well-located retail assets centers like Doraville Plaza worked in our favor,” says Taylor. “The location and future redevelopment potential of the underlying real estate created a competitive bidding environment.”
ATLANTA — Mill Creek Residential, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based developer and owner-operator of multifamily properties, has begun preleasing at Modera Old Ivy, a luxury apartment community under development in Atlanta’s Buckhead district. Located within a mid-rise and high-rise tower at 3651 Lenox Road, the development is on a site that includes the Prominence office building and an Element Marriott hotel. First move-ins are anticipated in early June. According to the property website, rental rates range from $2,290 per month for a one-bedroom unit to $6,635 for a three-bedroom apartment. Mill Creek is building the 394-unit property to a National Green Building Standard Gold certification level. Community amenities will include a 24-hour fitness studio, clubhouse, community-wide Wi-Fi, demonstration kitchen, game room, rooftop deck, two pools including one rooftop pool, sauna, steam room, grilling area with outdoor dining, fire pit, coffee bar, library lounge with a reading terrace and landscaped courtyards. Residents will also have secured parking in a private garage with reserved parking and electric vehicle charging stations available, controlled guest-access technology, package lockers, dedicated bike storage, resident storage lockers and concierge services.
In many ways, metro Atlanta is a tale of two office markets. Google, Microsoft, Papa John’s, Visa and FanDuel are just some of the heavy hitters that have signed major deals over the last year and a half, fueling leasing activity that is getting closer to pre-pandemic norms. Much of that action has been centered in the Central Business District (CBD), which registered a 68 percent year-over-year increase in leasing volume compared to first-quarter 2021. According to research from CoStar Group, leasing volume for the entire market totaled 3.2 million square feet in the first quarter, which is on par with the 10-year quarterly average. Midtown, where more than 2 million square feet of new product is under construction and the majority of corporate heavyweights have planted their flag, led all submarkets in leasing activity, with Cushman & Wakefield reporting nearly 314,000 square feet of new leases signed in the first quarter. Midtown’s overall walkability, abundance of high-rise residential units, new office buildings and access to talent from local universities and mass transit have enabled it to become a talent magnet for major employers and one of the nation’s premier submarkets. However, the vast majority of office tenants in metro …