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Midtown Office Rents Poised to Overtake Buckhead's

By Tony Wilbert, [email protected] (Click here for full story.)

Greenstone Properties planned 14th & Spring development in Midtown.

Having jumped 6.4 percent in the past year, Midtown's gross asking rates grew at a faster clip than in any other Atlanta submarket, according to CoStar research.

The average Midtown asking rent of $33.24 per square foot per year trails only Upper Buckhead, and by a mere 52 cents a foot.

  (Click here for full story.)

 

Dart Realty's Jackie Doak: "Camana Bay Ushered New Urbanism into the Caribbean"

CAMANA BAY, Grand Cayman, June 10, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jackie Doak, Chief Operating Officer of Dart Realty (Cayman) Ltd. joined New Urbanist legend Andrés Duany and Steve Nygren of Serenbe on a panel discussion about the future of the New Urbanism movement. The forum took place at the 47^th Annual Real Estate Journalism Conference in Atlanta, hosted by the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE).

The panel discussion, titled "The Next Evolution of New Urbanism," discussed emerging trends in New Urbanism. Doak shared Dart Realty's vision for the future of Camana Bay, a 500-acre mixed-use development in the heart of Grand Cayman. Camana Bay is considered the first example of New Urbanism in the Caribbean. In collaboration with an exceptional team of architects, master planners, landscape architects, and other experts, Doak and Dart Realty sought to improve what was already a high quality of life on a beautiful island by creating a walkable town with a distinctly modern Caribbean style.

Camana Bay includes residential and commercial spaces, along with shops, restaurants, sports facilities, and a school. With 30% of the town designated as open space, Camana Bay's walkability is enhanced by botanic walkways, courtyards and gathering spaces landscaped with native species grown in the Dart Realty nursery. At its heart is the Town Center, which is quickly emerging as Grand Cayman's most popular destination for food, fashion, entertainment and community events. Despite its relative youth, Camana Bay's sense of place and community are firmly established.

NAREE's conference titled – "Designs on the New Urban Grid" – brings some of the top journalists from around the country to Atlanta from June 5 to 8 to focus on residential and commercial real estate, as well as urban planning and development.

"Camana Bay ushered New Urbanism into the Caribbean," Doak said. "It is an honor to be included in this discussion about the future of walkable communities and smart growth with Andrés Duany, a man who many consider to be the godfather of the New Urbanist movement."

Through his work as a principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Duany was involved with the master planning of the Camana Bay residential communities in 2008.

The NAREE conference also features speakers addressing home building, hotels, luxury housing, mortgages, and online real estate, while maintaining the overarching theme of new urban design.

For more information about Camana Bay, visit camanabay.com.

About Camana Bay

A destination within a destination, Camana Bay is a vibrant new town located in the heart of Grand Cayman. Stretching 500 acres from the famous Seven Mile Beach to the tranquil North Sound, this mixed-use master planned community opened in December 2007 and is one of the first examples of New Urbanism in the Caribbean. Developed by Dart Realty (Cayman) Ltd. in collaboration with an award-winning team of visionaries, including Duany Plater-Zyberk, Moore Ruble Yudell and OLIN Partnership, Camana Bay offers a unique mix of thoughtfully designed residential, commercial and public spaces, world-class shopping and dining, education and sports facilities plus family-friendly entertainment, events and attractions.

For more information on Camana Bay visit camanabay.com, like Camana Bay Fan Page on Facebook or follow Camana Bay on Twitter.

Media Contacts:

Hadley Creekmuir, The Wilbert Group
Tel: 404-343-4080
E-mail: [email protected]

Melissa Ladley, Dart Realty
Tel: 345-640-3371
E-mail: [email protected]

NAREE Lands Andres Duany Exclusive at Spring Journalism Conference in Atlanta

ATLANTA  (May 21, 2013) – New Urbanism visionary Andres Duany, one of world's most influential architects and urban planners, will address the National Association of Real Estate Editors’ 47th Annual Real Estate Journalism Conference in Atlanta in early June.

 

NAREE’s conference – “Designs on the New Urban Grid” -  will bring scores of journalists from around the country to Atlanta June 5-8 to focus on housing, commercial real estate and urban planning.

 

"Duany is the godfather of the New Urbanism movement," said real estate columnist Ralph Bivins, NAREE conference advisor. "He has changed the way communities are being built and the way cities will be designed in the future. In short, his ideas have changed America - and the world."

 

Duany will speak Friday, June 7 at the substantive one-hour “NAREE Symposium: The Next Evolution of New Urbanism” at the Hilton Atlanta.

 

David Bodamer, editor of National Real Estate Investor, will moderate the symposium, which will include two noteworthy New Urbanism developers: Jackie Doak, chief operating officer of Dart Realty (Cayman) Ltd.; and Steve Nygren, president, Serenbe.  Doak will discuss The New Resort Town of Camana Bay, a 500-acre mixed-use development in the heart of Grand Cayman built using New Urbanism principles. Nygren is developing the Serenbe eco-village, a 1,000-acre sustainable community south of Atlanta.

 

Duany - hailed by The Atlantic magazine as “The Man Who Reinvented the City” – is co-founder of DPZ Architecture in Miami. His New Urbanism principles prescribe the antidotes to urban sprawl and auto-dominated lifestyles with focus on walkable, sustainable communities.

 

“We are honored to have Mr. Duany speak at our conference,” said NAREE President Kris Hudson, a Wall Street Journal reporter. “Attendees will be enriched by this opportunity to learn more about New Urbanism, in conjunction with other real estate topics.”

 

Along with speakers addressing home building, hotels, luxury housing, mortgages, and online real estate, the NAREE conference will carry the new urban design theme with speakers and tours including:

 

• Marianne Cusato, the designer who created the Katrina Cottage as a cost effective substitute for FEMA trailer housing victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She designed the Katrina Cottage during a Duany-led charette in Biloxi, Miss.
• Mark Toro, partner of North American Properties, will host a NAREE tour of the Atlantic Station mixed-use project in Midtown Atlanta.
• Matt Bronfman, CEO, Jamestown, will host a tour of Ponce City Market, the largest adaptive re-use project in Atlanta’s history, with a redevelopment of a massive Sears warehouse.
• A Saturday walking tour of Serenbe, including its 25-acre organic farm and Farmer's Market in the main village. Serenbe's streetscapes are lined with blueberries and connect with country walking paths.
• Matt Hudgins, a contributing writer to the New York Times, will lead the “Workplace Debate: Downtown vs. the Suburbs” with panelists John McColl, Cousins Properties; Robert Bach, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank; Rob Metcalf, Jones Lang LaSalle and David Kitchens, Cooper Carry.

 

"NAREE 13 will bring journalists from the Los Angeles Times to the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post and Boston Globe to Tweet, blog, report and write about the driving forces of where the next generation will live, work and play,’ said Mary Doyle-Kimball, NAREE Executive Director. “ I expect Mr. Duany will tell us not only about his vision of the future but also what might be done to re-make the sprawl in the suburbs. Just as millions left the farm in the post-World-War II era, millions are flocking to the urban core today."

 

Equipping journalists to better report and interpret the real estate design and development is a vital component of the NAREE conference, Doyle-Kimball said.

 

The NAREE University sessions, covering digital media, blogging, Twitter and other journalism topics, will provide invaluable peer learning opportunities.  NAREE University peer faculty will include contributors and journalists from the Orlando Sentinel, Wall Street Journal, Commercial Property Executive, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, MSN Real Estate, Unique Homes magazine, AOL Real Estate, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Los Angeles Times. 

 

 

 

Visit www.naree.org for more information.

 

Mary Doyle-Kimball, NAREE Executive Director

 

561-391-3599

Gardens Go Vertical at Camana Bay

CAMANA BAY, Grand Cayman (March 13, 2013) - While visiting Cayman last week for spring break, we got a firsthand look at Camana Bay's living wall/vertical garden. 

The wall and garden create a nice environment for residents and a serve as a good transition from the mixed-used development's bustling Town Centre and to its residential space. I've posted a couple photos and a link to a cayCompass article about "The Hanging Garden of Camana Bay."

In the photo at left, workers install plants on a wall garden.

To learn more about the important role landscaping and landscape design plays at Camana Bay - the premiere new urbanism development in the Caribbean - click here. Note: Camana Bay is a client of The Wilbert Group.