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Atlanta Developer's Sale of Jacksonville Mall Sets Mark For Retail Real Estate Sales

ATLANTA (June 11, 2014) - Atlanta developer and retail visionary Ben Carter just sold his stake in an upscale Jacksonville mall for a great price. Carter developed St. Johns Town Center and successfully persauded retailers including Apple, Louis Vuitton and soon Nordstrom to take space or build at the superregional mall.

Carter sold his 50 percent ownership stake in St. Johns Town Center to Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management, a unit of Deutsche Bank formerly known as RREEF. (Simon Property Group, the huge REIT, owns the other 50 percent and will continue to lease and manage St. Johns Town Center.)

The price for half of the 1.2 million-square-foot center was more than $375 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

That's a big number and is emblematic of investors' desire for malls with high occupancy rates and top-notch clients. The transaction highlights Carter's real estate savvy and vision. He built an upscale mall in a secondary market and filled it with primary-market tenants. Then, he sold at the right time. The Wilbert Group is thrilled to be working with him.

Here's more from Robbie Whelan's story in the Journal.

Mr. Carter, who also has property investments in Atlanta and Savannah, Ga., said in an interview he sold his stake in the Jacksonville mall because he wants to focus on different projects. He also said he thought he could get a good price because there are few high-quality, superregional malls on the market.

"My new business strategy is outlet malls and urban development. I don't see a great need in the Southeast for regional malls," Mr. Carter said. "They're not making these assets anymore. There are very few of them in private hands, and the premium assets don't really trade."

St. Johns Town Center had an occupancy rate of 99% and sales of between $650 and $700 a square foot last year, according to Mr. Carter and brokers who worked on the deal.

 

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, formerly known as RREEF, has $47 billion in assets under management in its real-estate investment business and invests in publicly traded real-estate investment trusts, private equity and debt, in addition to making direct property investments across the globe.

In a 2014 strategic outlook report produced by Deutsche in February, the company observed that "the split between the best- and worst-performing shopping centers grows ever wider and seems to be enduring," and said that it prefers to invest in "dominant regional malls and unique retail offerings" such as urban "high street" retail.

Green Street Advisors, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based real-estate research firm, estimates that last year, the highest-quality malls in the country, dubbed "A++" malls, produced $945 in sales a square foot of space. D-malls, the lowest-quality grade, produced $140 a square foot last year. Based on its sales per square foot last year, St. Johns Town Center would fall somewhere between an A and A+-rated mall.

The sale to Deutsche is "a good sign for owners who have this quality of properties in their portfolios," said Daniel Busch, an analyst who covers retail real estate for Green Street. "All the focus recently has been on selling low quality properties, the B malls. That's what's been on the market. These high-end transactions are few and far between. This transaction gives us a lot of confidence that values are holding up at the high end."

 

 

Wild Wednesday 2008: Atlanta Real Estate Journalists Crash in Vegas

ATLANTA (May 21, 2014) - As this year's RECon comes to a close in Las Vegas, it's time to throwback six years to a night an auto accident in Las Vegas spiced up the trip to ICSC for a couple of Atlanta-based journalists and a reporter-turned-PR pro.

On May 19, 2008, Matt Valley (then editor of National Real Estate Investor, now an editor at France Media Inc.; Rachel Tobin (formerly Ramos and AJC reporter, now PR pro at Jackson Spalding); and I (then at Edelman, now at The Wilbert Group) were enjoying a herky-jerky taxi ride when the cabbie gambled and lost. He veered into another car, and we all collided. (See Rachel and Matt OK after the accident in this all-too-dark photo. It proves we were in Nevada, though.)

Here's the full post. I've also pasted the story below. 

LAS VEGAS (May 20, 2008) - Matt Valley, editor of National Real Estate Investor magazine, and Rachel Ramos, retail reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, are both in Las Vegas to cover ICSC’s Recon 2008. While here, they expect to cover some of the hottest stories in retail real estate, meet with key real estate magnates and eat at some of the city’s best restaurants. But on Monday night, they ended up seeing the seedier side of Vegas - an area better suited for an episode of "Cops - Sin City."

Matt, Rachel and I were heading to dinner in a taxi – Western Cab No. 165 – when our driver decided to try to drive past an older-model Cadillac Eldorado veering on a four-lane shortcut off the Strip. Just after the cab accelerated, the Eldorado’s driver tried to turn into our lane, and bam! The cars collided and Rachel bounced off Matt in the back seat.

Everyone was OK but somewhat shaken. (In photo at left, Matt and Rachel are all smiles outside the dented taxicab.)

Shortly after the crash, the cab and car pulled into a parking lot, and we quickly realized we were surrounded by sleazy extended-stay motels. Several residents, all male and none wearing shirts on this 109-degree day, came out of their rooms, lured by the sound of crunched metal. They quickly retreated into their rooms when motorcycle cop arrived.

The accident gave us a unique opportunity to experience the dichotomy of Las Vegas real estate while waiting for the Metropolitan Las Vegas Police and Nevada Taxi Authority to come interview us about the crash. Here we were, about two blocks from the Las Vegas Hilton and the site of Recon 2008, surrounded by lowly flophouses with names such as La Mesa Sierra Nevada. They represent a vastly different type of lodging than Mandalay Bay, Planet Hollywood hotel and the Renaissance, hotels we chose for the trip.

But we were the lucky ones. Once we gave our statements to the police and insurance adjustor, we jumped into another Western cab and headed for the Venetian for dinner at Bouchon.

Atlanta Firm Presents Future of Retail at Huge Real Estate Convention

ATLANTA (May 20, 2014) - The Secret Sauce, the first SlideShare in a series exploring the future of retail from North American Properties (NAP), argues that chef-driven restaurants are increasingly essential to the success of retail and mixed-use projects. North American Properties - Atlanta launched The Future of Retail series yesterday at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) RECon show in Las Vegas. 

 NAP is not just offering up theories. It is betting on the power of chef-driven restaurants. It has secured six of the Southeast’s hottest chefs for Avalon, a $600 million mixed-use development that will open in late October in Alpharetta, Ga.

The Secret Sauce: Why Retail and Mixed-Use Projects Need Local Chefs from Suong Nguyen

Those restaurateurs include Ford Fry, Shaun Doty, Steve Palmer, Brian Lewis, Ciaran Duffy and Giovanni Di Palma. The Secret Sauce shares interesting statistics about the rise of the foodie and the decline of the chain restaurant, as well as insights about how industry leaders are adapting to the trends. The Secret Sauce can be downloaded here. 

Avalon is a new experience in the timeless art of living well. In the heart of Alpharetta, this sustainably-designed, 86-acre development with more than 500,000 square feet of retail, a 12-screen all premium theater, conference center and full-service hotels, Class A office, single-family residences and luxury rental homes infuses resort-level hospitality throughout a walkable, seamlessly connected community of shopping, dining, entertainment, living, and working. It's more than just another place to go, it's a place to be — a hub of local art and activity that delivers the luxury of the modern South. At 2.4 million square feet and more than $600 million, Avalon is one of the largest projects currently underway in the United States. You can find more updates on Avalon at its website, Facebook page, Instagram or Twitter profile. - See more here.

Hendon Rocks Roars Back at ICSC RECon with Jenny McCarthy, Kick-Ass Lineup

Hendon Rocks, Atlanta developer Charlie Hendon's big bash at ICSC's RECon show in Vegas, is back at The Joint at the Hard Rock Cafe and better than ever. And he's got MTV star Jenny McCarthy in tow.
Check out this lineup. It's reminiscent of the rocking go-go days of past and a good sign retail is rebounding.

First Word in Social Media is "Social" - You Must Engage to Be Successful

By Savannah Duncan, Wilbert News Strategies

ATLANTA (October 11, 2012) — With so many different forms of social media out there, it’s hard to know what forum would be best for your company. While Facebook and LinkedIn are popular outlets, Twitter seems to be the dominant forum among the commercial real estate community. 

At the 2012 ICSC Southeast Conference, Tony Wilbert, president of Wilbert News Strategies, moderated a panel discussion on learning to become a social media mogul in only minutes a day. Panelists included Kristen Smith, CFO of Abbadabba’s Cool Shoes; Sarah Malcolm, manager of new media for the International Council of Shopping Centers and John Orr, vice president of Colliers International’s retail services group.

Orr  spends between 30 and 45 minutes a day on Twitter. He has both a personal Twitter, @JohnOrrCCIM, in addition to tweeting for Colliers International under @ColliersIntlSC. “You must be current, relevant and consistent,” he said.

 On his personal Twitter, Orr balances a mix between personal tweets and commercial real estate related information. However, on the Colliers International Twitter, he tried to keep the information more company-oriented.

Smith, who tweets as @Abba_KS, said she uses Twitter to help build her personal brand, as well as a resource to find new products and brokers. “It is marketing but it’s also important to have your voice out there,” she said.

As the voice of ICSC, Malcolm tweets under both @ICSC and @MrsSarahMalcolm. “It’s important to know your audience,” Malcolm said. “Use Twitter to build relationships and talk about what your customer cares about. Don’t talk about yourself too much.

Wilbert added that Twitter and other social media outlets such as Facebook can be an important tool in communicating with your customer base. For example, when Atlantic Station (a Wilbert client) was considering imposing a smoking ban, the mixed-use development took to the Internet to find out the opinion of its guests.

While it may seem overwhelming at first, “The key is just to get started,” Orr said. “The first word in ‘social media’ is ‘social.’”

Wilbert News Strategies is a PR, communications and social media company with clients in economic development, real estate, destination/mixed-use, hospitality, retail and financial services. In addition to clients across the U.S., we are the agency of record for the Town of Camana Bay, a destination in Grand Cayman.