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The Inside Scoop on the People & Places that Shape Atlanta Real Estate | |
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Clean Slate at Suwanee Gateway One 
Left to right: Austin Chase of Lavista Associates, Kirven Brantley of Lavista Associates, Chris Scott of Greenstone Properties and Steve Martin of SDM Partners. It's a clean slate at Suwanee Gateway One, as SDM Partners in conjunction with a financial source closed on the acquisition of the Northeast office building this week.
The SDM team acquired the five-story, 142,000-square-foot development from Fifth Third Bank for $7.7 million and has brought in Lavista Associates' Kirven Brantley and Austin Chase and Chris Scott of Greenstone Properties to lease Suwanee Gateway One, which is adjacent to Interstate 85 and formerly the site of the Falcons' training facilities. Opus South delivered the building in January 2009 at the height of recession.
Suwanee Gateway One offers the Northeast corridor's largest block of Class-A space, LEED Silver standards and interstate exposure. It's now up to SDM and the building's leasing team to get the building back on brokers' and economic-development types' radar in anticipation of the submarket's next big pop. Gwinnett attracts at least one big office user a year, SDM Principal Steve Martin said, and Suwanee Gateway One has come close to landing a big fish a couple of times in the past two years. The new owners can afford to be patient, Martin said, not that they plan on a long wait.
"As we move forward, tenant rep brokers will want to deal with new owners that are well capitalized," Martin said. "I do sense that the market is starting to change, and I'm hopeful our timing is good." |
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Quick Work at Pinnacle Business Center 
From left to right: Anthony Lois,
Mary Sorrells-Carter and Bill Johnson of
Richard Bowers & Co. Richard Bowers & Co.'s
land and investment group wastes no time when it comes to Pinnacle
Business Center in Norcross.
Chicago-based
Wrightwood Capital hired the Bowers team, which
includes Bill Johnson, Anthony Lois
and Mary Sorrells-Carter, to market the six-building,
308,247-square-foot REO property. So far, two buildings have sold, and a
third is under contract.
The sale of
400 Pinnacle Way closed in the past week, with Omega Bioscience
acquiring the property. The new owner plans to occupy approximately 70
percent of the 46,316-squre-foot flex building and lease the remainder. A
private buyer purchased 100 Pinnacle Way, a 57,112-square-foot
building, as an investment and plans to lease up the structure. The
third building is under contract to an engineering firm that plans to
locate its headquarters at Pinnacle Business Center.
Johnson
declined to discuss pricing, but noted an extraordinary difference in
investor activity and interest compared to a year ago.
"Investors
are getting a sense that, as evidenced by our activity in Pinnacle
Business Center, there are firms creating jobs and there is some growth
in select industries," said Johnson, a senior VP at Bowers. "The small
business owner has historically been the source of recovery for Atlanta
real estate, and I believe this is what will happen again. Once investor
financing becomes available, there will be a significant increase in
transactions and a significant increase in values."  |
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No Rest for the Already Successful
 Lisa Ward of IDI.
IDI's Atlanta leasing and
development team could take the rest of the year off, but this group's not
known for resting on its collective laurels.
In metro Atlanta and Savannah,
IDI's leased 2.4 million square feet of industrial space in the past 12
months, three times the average even in a normal economy. The locally based
national developer landed a couple of big build-to-suits and leased up 141 Knowlton
Way near the Savannah port along the way.
Like a good Scout, IDI is prepared
with pad-ready sites, and it also benefits from repeat clients, which account
for 60 percent of its development business. The ability to bank land also helps,
said IDI VP Lisa Ward.
"We're successful at landing some
of these build-to-suits because of their unique nature," said Ward, part of the
core group that started the company in 1989. "By the time clients get board
approval, they're already behind schedule and don't have time for entitlement
and other pre-development issues. The larger clients are looking because they
think right now is the time to take advantage of the market."
Ward doesn't anticipate any spec
development in Atlanta until 2012, as IDI continues to pursue build-to-suits
interested in metro Atlanta and IDI's Meridian 75 development near Macon, which
is part of the state's Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD)
program. The investment side currently is thriving, though, after a woeful
2009. Across the U.S., IDI's sold $460 million in core industrial assets this
year and plans to invest another $200 million in core-development acquisitions.
"We're seeing capital for core,
Class-A product, and then capital for truly distressed," Ward said. "That literally
did not exist in 2009."
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Mixing it Up with NAIOP
 From left to right: Felix Figueroa of Northwestern, Mazeen Porbandarwala of Wells Fargo, Chuck Francis of Cousins and Marcellus Parker of Regus.
NAIOP's Young Professionals mixed and mingled in the lobby of Building 15 of Piedmont Center North on Tuesday evening. The Rooster dropped in the lively happy hour to cheers our up and coming friends.
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Catch the Rooster
Rooster Teammates.
Rooster's on the move today - join us! We're flying north to catch the YCR golf tournament at St. Marlo Country Club this morning. Tonight, we're spreading our wings across the city with YARA's happy hour, Circle of Trust and the launch party for Gene Kansas's Sidewalk Radio. We look forward to seeing many of you out there.
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 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.
In case you missed us, click here for past issues. |
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