Condo Celebration - No, Really
Sherri Mann of Century Retail and Coleman Morris and Stephanie Lipp of Colliers at The Atlantic Tuesday night.
Colliers' annual party coinciding with the ICSC Southeast Conference always highlights the retail-industry gathering, and this year, compared to last, there are actually things to celebrate.
Chief among them for Colliers Atlanta: the leasing assignment for ground-floor retail at ST Residential's Atlanta mixed-use portfolio, including The Brookwood in Buckhead, The Atlantic at Atlantic Station, Luxe in Midtown and Serrano in Sandy Springs. ST Residential, a public-private partnership involving the FDIC and Starwood Capital, acquired Corus Bank's national condo portfolio.
Colliers Coleman Morris and Stephanie Lipp lease the properties' 45,000 square feet of retail space and are targeting a different mix of upscale tenants for each property. The condos' strengthened ownership position opened the floodgates for occupiers seeking demographically desirable infill and mixed-use locations, and proposals are already out for space at The Brookwood, Serrano and Atlantic since picking up the assignment in August.
"We're looking for retailers that offer the best amenities for each building, and the response has been great," Morris said.
"Now that it's back on the market, we're really seeing pent-up demand, a term you haven't heard in a while," said Jon Barry, president of Colliers International-Atlanta's retail operations and national managing director of Colliers asset resolutions team. "We're really excited to be part of the whole ST Residential platform, even more so with all the interest we've seen. It's a turning point in the condo market."
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Birnbrey's Perspective
The Shopping Center Group's David Birnbrey.
David Birnbrey needs a hobby. After all, running The Shopping Center Group, serving as co-president of the Jewish National Fund and CFO for his daughter's upcoming wedding just doesn't give him enough to do.
Birnbrey, chairman and co-CEO, leads an organization that represents 350 national or regional retailers and restaurants and lists 65 million square feet of retail space with 18 offices in 10 states. An Atlanta native, 28 of his 30 years in commercial real estate have been with The Shopping Center Group where he's led the company through a painful recession."We've really addressed that by getting creative," Birnbrey said. "I'm proud of our company's response to what could have been a real debacle."Shopping Center Group's team took steps like leasing a vacant farmer's market in Gwinnett County to an aircraft maintenance school and working with nontraditional tenants like churches, universities and medical users and adding properties from special services to the portfolio. The company enhanced tenant rep by working with one of retail's most active segments, deep discounters.Birnbrey is optimistic about in-town retail trends where there are more opportunities for adaptive reuseand creative retail formats for tenants of all sizes, but is more cautious on the suburbs where some centers may remain vacant for a while."If you talk about an area where retail is in demand, it's in town, but the suburbs are having their issues," Birnbrey said. "The good spaces have been backfilled, and we're predicting a shortage of quality retail space by 2012."
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Good Mood in the Morning
Kirk Rich of Carter and 2010 SIOR president, Mayor Kasim Reed and Sim Doughtie of King Industrial, 2011 SIOR president.
Ebullient is our SAT word of the day, and that was the mood for Wednesday's SIOR Leadership Breakfast. Wills Allen, Chris Dempsey and Bronson Smith were ebullient after receiving SIOR scholarships to help further their educations at Georgia State and Emory, while The Study Hall board and Executive Director Jaquetta Watkins were ebullient to receive a donation from SIOR to assist the South Atlanta non-profit after-school program in its mission.
No one tops keynote speaker Mayor Kasim Reed, though.
"If leaders in the real estate and investment community are in a good mood, then I'm in a good mood," Reed said.
Reed energized the crowd, noting the city's growing financial reserves and efforts to make Atlanta a leading logistics hub not just for the U.S. but for the Western Hemisphere. He plans to announce two new air cargo clients for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in January and is ready to welcome Virgin Atlantic service service as well. Perhaps Virgin Galactic direct flights to outer space are next on the list.
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ULI's YLG
John Huckaby if ST Residential, Keith Mack of Regent Partners, Scott Greenfield of Novare Group and Alrich Lynch of LDG Consulting.
Watch out for the Rooster cell phone paparazzi. Never know where you'll find us.
ULI's Young Leaders Group hosted a distinguished panel including ST Residential's John Huckaby and David Haddow of Haddow & Company at the Atlantic last week to discuss the state of Atlanta's condo market. The take-away? Distressed sales and HOA reserve and lending requirements continue to put downward pressure on demand and pricing for new units. But, with condos trading at discounts of 30-40%, supply in Atlanta is down from 7,000 to 3,000 units.
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We don't care if you've been naughty or nice. Either way, you're invited to Rooster Media's holiday social at Fado Irish Pub Thursday, December 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. The o-fficial invite will hit your inbox soon. Interested in co-hosting THE holiday party of 2010? Contact Heather for the event details!
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