CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — Whataburger, a Corpus Christi-based fast food burger chain, is opening its first metro Atlanta restaurants this year. The two locations will be situated at 705 Town Park Lane NW in Kennesaw and 9766 GA-92 in Woodstock. At its Kennesaw location, Whataburger plans to hire 180 employees, and to employ more than 1,400 employees in the metro Atlanta area restaurants by the end of 2023. In 2023, other Whataburger locations will open around metro Atlanta including at 503 Lakeland Plaza in Cumming; SEQ Buford Drive and Exchange Drive in Buford; 3321 Lexington Road in Athens; 3201 Atlanta Highway in Athens; 100 Pottery Road in Commerce; and 15 Wallace Blvd. in Dawsonville. Whataburger currently has one Georgia restaurant in Thomasville. The burger chain has over 880 locations across 14 states.
ATLANTA — The Radco Cos. has purchased The American Hotel, a 315-room, full-service hotel in downtown Atlanta. Legacy Ventures sold the property for an undisclosed price but will stay on to manage the property. Opened in 1962 as the American Motor Hotel, the property was the first racially integrated hotel in downtown Atlanta. In the past, The American Hotel also hosted meetings of influential civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Ventures completed a $16 million renovation program in 2017, including rebranding the property as The American Hotel, to restore and revitalize the property. The Radco Cos. plans to build on these upgrades and rebrand the asset to Hilton’s new Tapestry Collection brand. Located at 160 Ted Turner Drive NW, The American Hotel is situated 12.1 miles from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The hotel is also directly across the street from the AmericasMart, a wholesale trade show center.
ATLANTA — International fashion and leisure department retailer YOYOSO will open its first Atlanta store at Atlantic Station, a mixed-use destination in Atlanta’s West Midtown area that features over 30 stores and restaurants, entertainment, hotels and 700,000 square feet of Class A office space, including a new office tower anchored by Microsoft. Located at 260 18th St. NW, the 8,244-square-foot space will include both men’s and women’s apparel at affordable prices from over 600 suppliers across the globe. YOYOSO is set to open its doors this fall. YOYOSO was founded in 2014 by Huan MA in China and opened its first location in the United States in 2019 with a Miami Beach storefront. The fashion enterprise has since expanded to over 1,000 locations across 36 countries and over 380 cities. The Atlantic Station location will be open seven days a week, with grand opening plans to be announced soon. Atlantic Station has also welcomed other tenants recently to the property including Derek Automotive, an electric vehicle company. The landlord of Atlantic Station, Hines, also plans to add Rosé Bistro and Champagne Bar and Atlanta Breakfast Club later this year.
ATLANTA — Trammell Crow Co. (TCC) and its residential subsidiary High Street Residential (HSR), along with Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures (GATV), have closed on ground leases and are ready to begin construction on the first phase of a life sciences and multifamily development adjacent to Atlanta’s Georgia Institute of Technology campus. Formerly known as Technology Enterprise Park, the site is now named Science Square. The first phase will include TCC’s Science Square Labs, a 364,740-square-foot speculative lab and office tower. The lab project is the only ground-up commercial lab space under construction in the Atlanta market, according to TCC. Phase I will also include HSR’s 280-unit multifamily building, the firm’s first residential development in Atlanta. The multifamily component will include shared parking and ground-floor retail space. Designed by Perkins + Will, Science Square Labs will rise 13 stories with 35,558-square-foot floor plates. The facility will also feature ground-floor retail space and amenities such as a fitness center, conference space, indoor-outdoor tenant lounge and outdoor amenity deck. TCC is seeking LEED and WELL certifications for the property and plans to incorporate View Dynamic Glass, which controls ultraviolet and visible light from entering the building without blinds. Additionally, the project will feature …
ATLANTA AND DENVER — Berkadia has completed the $375 million sale of a 12-property portfolio in Georgia totaling 2,459 apartments. Paul Vetter, Andrew Mays, Judy MacManus and Matt White of Berkadia completed the sale on behalf of the seller, JAMCO Properties. Berkadia’s Denver and Atlanta offices worked together closely throughout the process to arrange long-term Freddie Mac financing on behalf of the undisclosed buyer. The financing includes a mix of fixed and floating-rate, non-recourse loans. The properties in this portfolio include the following: Aspen Pointe, a 300-unit property in Roswell; Emerald Pointe, a 196-unit property in Riverdale; Lakeside Townhomes, a 177-unit property in College Park; Linden Ridge, a 210-unit property in Stone Mountain; Maplewood Pointe, a 218-unit property in Jonesboro; Morrowood Townhouses, a 264-unit property in Morrow; Oak Run, a 144-unit property in Jonesboro; Stonetree, a 232-unit property in East Point; Stratford Arms, a 100-unit property in Riverdale; The Village at Wesley Chapel, a 218-unit property in Decatur; Willow Lake, a 280-unit property in Stone Mountain; and The Woods at Southlake, a 120-unit property in Jonesboro.
ATHENS, GA.— Landmark Properties has formed a joint venture with a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) initially targeting $1 billion in investment. The venture will be focused on acquiring and operating value-add student housing properties in select markets across the U.S. “Landmark and ADIA have been aligned from the start of our relationship, seeing tremendous opportunity in top-tier student housing markets,” says Wes Rogers, president and CEO of Athens, Georgia-based Landmark. “We are confident we can find acquisition targets across the nation that will complement our existing development strategy. We are appreciative of the opportunity to expand our relationship with ADIA, one of the world’s leading institutional real estate investors.” Hodes Weill Securities LLC acted as financial advisor on behalf of Landmark Properties in connection with the formation and capitalization of the joint venture. Further details were undisclosed.
PEACHTREE CITY, KENNESAW AND MARIETTA, GA. — Alabama-based Atlas Senior Living has acquired three assisted living and memory care communities, all located in the greater Atlanta area. The properties include Legacy Ridge at Brookstone in Kennesaw, Legacy Ridge at Peachtree in Peachtree City, and Legacy Ridge at Sandy Plains in Marietta Atlas will replace the current operator, Heritage Senior Living, effective April 1. The acquisitions bring Atlas’ total number of properties to 35, with 10 in Georgia.
ATLANTA — Mesa West Capital has provided $92.5 million in bridge financing for the acquisition and repositioning of Magnolia Vinings, a 400-unit multifamily property in Atlanta’s Vinings district. Michael Riccio of CBRE Capital Markets Debt & Equity Finance arranged the financing on behalf of an undisclosed institutional real estate private equity fund. The four-year loan included interest-only payments and a floating interest rate. A portion of the loan proceeds will be used by the sponsor to continue the renovation program started by the seller, focusing largely on the interiors of 177 apartment homes that have not been significantly updated since the property was built in 1996. Magnolia Vinings is a garden-style apartment building that was 98 percent occupied at the time of the financing. The property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units across five different floorplans, ranging in size from 572 to 1,408 square feet. Each unit offers nine-foot ceilings, walk-in closets and stainless steel appliances. Renovated units feature quartz countertops, vaulted ceilings, vinyl plank flooring, framed mirrors and a wood-burning fireplace. Community amenities include a resort-style swimming pool, clubhouse, fitness center, cyber lounge and a bocce ball court. Located at 2151 Cumberland Way on 21.6 acres, the property is …
ATLANTA — Cushman & Wakefield has secured $90 million in refinancing on behalf of Arya Peachtree, a 282-unit multifamily property in Atlanta. Mike Ryan, Brian Linnihan, Blake Cohen, Richard Henry and Taylor Crowder of Cushman & Wakefield secured the refinancing loan on behalf of the borrower, Perennial Properties Inc. Arya Peachtree offers studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floorplans. Unit features include quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, full-size washers and dryers and floor-to-ceiling windows. Community amenities include a pool, grills, fitness center, sport lawn, fire pit, putting green, dog spa, flexible workspace stations, bike room and controlled access parking. Additionally, the newly constructed 12-story building has 16,346 square feet of office and retail space on the first two floors. Located at 1777 Peachtree St. NE, the property is situated between Buckhead to the north and Midtown to the south with access to the Interstate 75-85 Connector.
If you know any architects, you may want to check in with them because chances are they’re exhausted from having more work now than ever before, with no end in sight. That’s because despite all the headwinds facing real estate design — namely supply chain disruptions and staffing woes — developers are in growth mode, and architects are needed as they are uniquely equipped to game plan for what users want and need. The volume of work has not only accelerated for architects but they’re also tasked with mapping out new requirements while maximizing flexibility, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. The workload is getting so substantial that demand is exceeding the supply of architects in some instances. “The backlog is so significant that we are having to contemplate turning away work, which drives us crazy,” says Steve Goggans, principal and architect at SGA | NW, a GF design company. “We are trying to be most responsive to repeat clients, but we may find ourselves unable to produce and perform if we continue to take on work, so we are having to be a little more judicious than we ever have before.” Goggans says that SGA | NW’s logjam is also …