A Stone's Throw from Full Occupancy

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August 5, 2010

The Inside Scoop on the People & Places that Shape Atlanta Real Estate

A look at Stonewood Village shopping center in Alpharetta.

Drive Peachtree Parkway, Roswell Road, Cobb Parkway or most any other major suburban thoroughfare and it's pretty clear that metro Atlanta has its share of retail vacancy and near-empty shopping centers. Stonewood Village in Alpharetta is not among them.

The former owner redeveloped the property at Highway 9 and Cogburn Road in 2007 but then lost it in foreclosure to Inland Mortgage. At that point, Stonewood Village, which was originally anchored by Ingles, had Antiques & Interiors and Dover Saddlery as tenants and not much else. In the past nine months, Inland's CB Richard Ellis leasing team of Rusty Kigelman and Tony Cerniglia have brought the 106,000-square-foot shopping center to 96 percent leased.

Big Lots led the way, signing on for approximately 30,000 square feet in March, followed by Natural Foods Warehouse with 11,000 square feet in April and American Bodyworks with 8,500 square feet in July. Janeene Minik of The Minik Co. represented Big Lots, while Howard Ball of Altus Real Estate Advisors represented American Bodyworks. Natural Foods Warehouse was represented internally.

"Once Big Lots fell into place, the others followed," Kigelman said.

A Certain Fearlessness ...

John Heagy of Hines.

Hines Senior VP John Heagy would greatly prefer a better economy and real estate market, but he's mostly fearless and well suited to work his way through current conditions.

He's climbed Mt. Rainier, adventure raced - sort of a triathlon but in the middle of nowhere - through the Wisconsin woods with his boss, and likes to target and skeet shoot with his wife, Lucy, who's the better shot in the Heagy household. He's proven adept at wrangling cats, serving as chairman of the Perimeter CID and president of the Atlanta Area Boy Scout Council for the past two years, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

"Now I've got an even better title: immediate past president," Heagy joked.

Of course, he's played a leading role in development and leasing of some of metro Atlanta and the Southeast's most prominent office developments, at Hines since 1996 and at Faison, Portman-Barry and Johnson Office Interests beforehand. Hines' Atlanta leasing team faces the challenge of trying to retain tenants like Alston & Bird and Morris, Manning & Martin amidst the current market, but conditions in Charlotte have stabilized with Bank of America taking its surplus space off the market and Wachovia/Wells Fargo attracting interest in its sublease space.

Locally, Heagy's CID responsibilities place him in the forefront on transportation issues. The CIDs, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Atlanta Regional Commission are looking ahead to 2012 when Georgia residents will vote on whether or not regions can implement a sales tax to fund transportation improvements, a mechanism many cities already use and a method that will help leverage federal transportation funding for the metro area.

"That's really the future for this market, and, hopefully, it will be the future of the state if we can pass this referendum," Heagy said.

Celebrating Our Newest Hotel....

Grove Street Partners Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Grove Street's Kevin Kern, Chip Groome and Jim Stormont cut the ribbon at Marriott Gateway Center with College Park's Mayor Jack Longino, other College Park dignitaries and Marriott executives.

Grove Street Partners, College Park dignitaries and hotel executives debuted the new 400-room, LEED Gold Marriott at Grove Street's Gateway Center development Tuesday night. The hotel is adjacent to the Georgia International Convention Center and is the only hotel physically connected to the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield Jackson International, and its automated people mover. Let's see: next door to the newest convention center in the state and Hartsfield Jackson. Sounds like a pretty good location for a hotel.

... and Our Newest Gun Range!

Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos (left) and Sandy Springs Police Chief Terry Sult (right) cutting the ribbon at Sandy Springs Gun Club and Range yesterday afternoon.

The Rooster was excited to join the ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday at Sandy Springs Gun Club and Range. Real estate veterans and principal owners, Robyn Workman Marzullo and Cara Workman, were assisted in the ribbon cutting by Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos and Sandy Springs Police Chief Terry Sult.

The event was highly anticipated and welcomed with quite a sizable crowd. Notable guests included State Senator Judson Hill (32nd District), U.S. Congressional candidate from North Carolina, Ilario Pantano, and an Iraq war veteran.

At the Top of the Game

From left to right: Christine Hess of NCR, Ashley Gosse of Holder Properties, Sabrina Altenbach of Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., Josh Champion of Prudential Mortgage Capital Co, and Kevin Driver of CBRE.

The Rooster joined UGA real estate alumni to brave the heat and take over Top of the Chop at Turner Field Wednesday evening. We cheered the Braves on to a win over the hapless New York Mets.

We want to cover your next event! Send our marketing staff a note with all the deets and we will do our best to be there.

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