Skyline Views

Report: Madison Wants Piece of 1 Times Square

ATLANTA (July 29, 2009) - Madison International Realty of New York would like to buy a decent-sized chunk of One Times Square, home of the famous New Year's Eve Ball drop, according to the July 29 edition of Real Estate Alert newsletter.

Madison International, which describes itself as "the leading liquidity provider to real estate investors worldwide," has approached limited partners in the Jamestown fund that owns the iconic building adorned with huge billboards from some of the world's largest companies. One Times Square has thousands of investors in Germany who bought shares from Jamestown, a syndicate with headquarters in Atlanta and Cologne, Germany.

Madison would like to buy a 25 percent to 30 percent stake in the 22-story, 112,000-square-foot building, and that would cost it between $35 million and $50 million, according to Real Estate Alert.

The offer likely will appeal to some shareholders, whose investments in the Jamestown 18 fund are illiquid. In fact, Real Estate Alerts reports that Madison already has persuaded some partners to sell their shares. Most should respond to Madison's offers to buy their shares by the end of August according to the report.

Neither Madison nor Jamestown would comment for the article.

Jamestown and Sherman Equities paid approximately $110 million for the building in 1997, according to the newsletter. The seller was the now-defunct Lehman Bros.

Mayor Franklin Appreciates Fine Art of Zoning

ATLANTA (July 23, 2009) - Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin invoked the Curse of Billy Penn to show her appreciation of a city's' zoning codes during a speech to the Buckhead Business Association.

Franklin, a Philadelphia native, told the story of how her father used to tell her that nothing could be built in the City of Brotherly Love that was taller than the statue of city founder William Penn that sits atop City Hall. And Franklin's father was right - until 1987.

The Philadelphia Art Commission had an agreement not to approve any plans for buildings taller than the Penn statue, which rises nearly 548 feet into the Philly sky. The agreement was in place for years, and Franklin said it actually hurt the city. Taller office towers - and jobs - went to the Philadelphia suburbs and across the river to Delaware and beyond, as a result, she said.

Things changed in 1987, when One Liberty Place opened, at 945 feet tall. But the price was steep for Philadelphia's sports fans. Breaking the Penn barrier brought the wrath of the Curse of Billy Penn, which made sure that no professional team in Philadelphia won a world championship. 

The curse lifted last year, when the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series. But that only happened, according to city lore, because a statue of William Penn was placed on the final beam of Comcast Center during the topping out ceremony for that tower. Because Comcast Center replaced One Liberty Place as Philadelphia's tallest tower, Penn reclaimed his position, and the sports teams were allowed to win it all.

Franklin shared the story to hammer home her point that a city's zoning laws must be pragmatic and well-thought-out.

But during the Q-and-A that followed her speech, Franklin said the city has not changed its zoning laws or process during her two terms as mayor. "That's a wonderful thing to ask the new mayor," she said, prompting laughter among the crowd.

NAIOP Georgia Happy Hour Lifts Spirits

ATLANTA (July 15, 2009) - A festive mood enveloped the NAIOP Georgia chapter's summer Happy Hour yesterday evening at Sweetwater Brewing Co. in Atlanta's Armour Industrial area.

Maybe it was the unlimited, made-on-site Sweetwater beer or the renewed belief in the metro area's ability to attract Fortune 500 companies that created the upbeat atmosphere. Still, the "When Will Things Get Better" question was asked often with uniform answer. Skyline Views was able to persuade Chet Koenig of Hodges Management and Leasing Co. and Jeff Mixson of Holder Properties to take a break from the fun and give their thoughts. (See video below.)

The event started at 4:30 p.m., and by 5:30, people packed the event space, which got a little hot on 

the 90-degree day. A contingent from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, fresh off the big

NCR win attended, as did Dick Bowers, president of Richard Bowers & Co. Peter Kasian of Tishman Speyer

announced winners of the raffle.

Proceeds from the $30 to $35 cost to attend will be used to help NAIOP Georgia chapter's Governmental 

Affairs Committee address public policy issues affecting commercial real estate, according to an e-mail

Kasian sent to attendees this afternoon.

PR people were everywhere, including myself. Other commercial real estate PR pros in attendance were 

Bailey Webb of The Gove Network, Jill lerner of Jill Lerner Communications and Chris Schroder of 

Schroder PR. Early on in the evening, there was talk that the top contenders in Atlanta's mayoral race 

would stop by, but that did not happen.

Nan to Open Thai Restaurant in Taurus Space

By Tony Wilbert, Wilbert News Strategies LLC

(UPDATE: The restaurant, Tuk Tuk, now is open. Here's a review.)

ATLANTA (July 7, 2009) - The creators of the popular Nan Thai Fine Dining and Tamarind Seed in Midtown Atlanta are poised to cross the Downtown Connector into Buckhead with a new restaurant.

The new restaurant, a Thai barbecue place, will open softly late this year inside the former Taurus Restaurant in Selig Enterprises' Brookwood Place development on Peachtree Street in extreme south Buckhead. It will be in full operation by New Year's Day 2010.

A staple item on the new restaurant's menu will be skewers of barbecued beef, chicken and other items served with sticky rice. The food's inspiration will come from the Isan region in Northeastern Thailand. 

The owners will work to transform the former Taurus steak house into a restaurant with an atmosphere reminiscent of the streets and markets of Bangkok in the 1940s and 50s.

The color scheme will center on off-whites and neutral blacks highlighted with sunburst oranges.

Abe Schear, co-chair of Arnall Golden Gregory's Real Estate Group, represented Nan is the negotiations for the restaurant space.

Taurus Restaurant, the brainchild of Gary Mennie, a former chef at Canoe, closed in January. It blamed its demise on the lousy economy.

New Invesco REIT Bigger News Than Appears

By Tony Wilbert, Wilbert News Strategies LLC

ATLANTA (July 6, 2009) - The week leading up to the long July Fourth weekend was surprisingly busy on the commercial real estate news front in Atlanta. Several major stories broke, including word from Rachel Ramos of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Ben Carter Properties would resume construction in September on The Streets of Buckhead.

We previously cited a Women's Wear Daily article that construction would start again this month, but hey, at least the most-watch project in Atlanta is about to begin the begin again.

Doug Sams of Atlanta Business Chronicle cracked the story about Marsh moving up the Buckhead Loop to Two Alliance Center, shown in rendering at left. It's good to see the much-talked-about news out, and I'd like to see the story behind the deal (i.e. Did Tishman Speyer have to shell out $100/sq. ft. in TI dollars?)

Sams' counterpart at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Gertha Coffee joined Tammy Joyner in an interesting look at how companies are reconfiguring existing office space after layoffs and other work force reductions. The article includes a chart showing that the average square footage of office space per worker actually increased this year to 435 sq. ft., up from 415, according to the International Facility Management Association.

Good stories all, but the Commercial Real Estate Development of the Week goes to a story that garnered practically zero inches of press in the local papers. On June 26 (OK, I'm stretching last week's news cycle to include the previous Friday), Invesco Ltd. of Atlanta took Invesco Capital Mortgage public.

This means Atlanta, which has lost a couple REITs in the past several years, including Weeks Corp. and JDN Realty, has a brand-new real estate investment trust. Invesco Mortgage Capital, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "IVR," will focus on investing in and managing CMBS (commercial mortgage-backed securities) and mortgages - both residential and commercial.

Clearly Invesco sees opportunity emerging out of the mortgage mess and is confident it can make a mortgage REIT work. The most-recent one to try in Atlanta, Chastain Capital Corp. wasn't too successful and no longer exits.

Invesco Mortgage Capital didn't get off to a stellar start. The size of the initial public offering was slashed from 20 million shares to 8.5 million, but it's nice to have another Atlanta-based REIT to follow nonetheless.