Deal would be one of the largest-ever office sales in Los Angeles County history.
Click here for the full scoop from CoStar News Los Angeles market reporter Jacquelyn Ryan.
By Tony Wilbert, CoStar News
A funny thing happened on the way to the expected decline in Atlanta office sales volume in the first quarter. The aggregate value of trades increased 75 percent - even as the number of transactions dropped dramatically.
A Guest Post By Brad Alexander, Senior Vice President, McGuire Woods Consulting
ATLANTA (Nov. 1, 2012) - The argument has been made numerous times that if government were run more like a business, taxpayers would benefit, as tax dollars would be spent more efficiently. This election, we have the opportunity to make that happen and hopefully, we will.
Amidst Hurricane Sandy and the presidential race at the top of Tuesday's General Election ballot, it is disappointing that more Georgians have not heard about Amendment 2, which will allow the state to enter into multiyear leases.
Those of us who work in the real estate industry tend to shake our heads in wonder that the state of Georgia would not enter into multiyear leases for the office space leased to house hundreds of government workers. The reason is because of an antiquated law that forbids the state from signing anything beyond a single-year lease.
So what does this mean? It means taxpayers pay much higher rates than other “market” renters. It means landlords are less likely to make needed improvements for 365 day leases. It means that Georgia taxpayers are spending more than necessary foroffice space each and every year.
If Amendment 2 passes, the State Properties Commissionestimates taxpayers will save $66 million over 10 years, with potential ofmore future savings.
The average amount of time the state stays in leased office space is 10.7 years. If voters approve this amendment, it will not extend occupancy. Instead, it will lower the amount paid for currently leased space. Essentially, we’ll be paying less to have the exact same need met.
In order to make sure there is real accountability, multiple oversight mechanisms are in place that are far greater than anything a private sector business would go through before signing a lease.This will allow the taxpayer to reap the benefit of savings without any meaningful risk of abuse.
Multiyear leases have already worked in other states. Sadly, Georgia is one of only two states with an AAA bond rating that require single-year leases.
I plan to vote yes for Amendment 2 because it is one of the most common sense changes to make government run a bit more like a businessthat I’ve come across in a long time. Republican and Democrat state leaders agree, which is why this bill passed with near unanimous support in the General Assembly. Please join me in voting yes for Amendment 2 and together, let’s save taxpayers dollars in a way that makes sense.
ATLANTA (Aug. 4, 2011) - Very quietly, a Mississippi REIT has stormed to the top of the ranking of Atlanta office owners.
Parkway Properties of Jackson now owns 7,690,355 square feet of office space across metro Atlanta, according to its website. Thanks to its acquisition this spring of Eola Capital and record-breaking purchase of 3344 Peachtree (pictured at left), Parkway leapfrogged perennial leaders Cousins Properties and CB Richard Ellis Investors, which recently acquired the 271 17th Street tower in Atlantic Station.
Cousins owns 5,378,000 square feet of office space in metro Atlanta, according to a recent SEC filing (Page 13).
What does all this mean? It's interesting to CRE people, and it arms transplanted Mississipians with a point of pride when Georgians tease the Magnolia State about being No. 1 in obesity. Georgia ranks 18th.
And while Atlanta is years ahead of Jackson in pretty much everything, a book set in Jackson and written by Kathryn Stockett of Atlanta's Brookwood Hills neighborhood is getting gobs of attention this week in advance of its big-screen debut.
ATLANTA (June 1, 2011) - Regent Partners has put itself in position to replicate its success with 3344 Peachtree just across the street.
The Atlanta developer and Pope & Land Enterprises have contracted to buy the five-story building at 3330 Peachtree Road, according to an article this week by Bisnow reporter Jarred Schenke. The mid-rise building is the former home of American InterContinental University's Buckhead campus.
Regent Partners' David Tennery tells Bisnow that Regent will redevelop the property as an office-centric mixed-use development by either using the existing structure or tearing down the mid-rise. (Our money is on Regent razing the building and created a twin to 3344 Peachtree, which set a new price-per-square-foot record when Regent sold the building to Parkway Properties early this year.
Skyline Views speculated as much when we reported about a year ago that Grubb & Ellis' Tom Miller had just listed the 60,000-square-foot building at 3330 Peachtree for sale. The building is listed as available on Tower Place 100's web site. Tower Place is one of Regent's signature developments in Atlanta.
Could this be the start of the next building boomlet in Buckhead? Probably not. But if Regent and Pope & Land redevelop the site, they could be first to market again when demand once again creates the need for a new office high-rise in Buckhead - whenever that occurs.
By Tony Wilbert
ATLANTA (May 3, 2011) - After writing about thousands of companies signing more than 10,000 office leases, I realized this spring it finally was time for me to sign a lease of my own.
Earlier this spring Wilbert News Strategies leased its first office space for the firm's headquarters. Our 1,832-square-foot lease at Peachtree 25th on the southern edge of Buckhead isn't large compared with recent six-figure deals signed in Atlanta, but for WNS it's a big step.
Wilbert News Strategies is a public relations, communications and social media firm. While we're proud to be considered a top real estate communications firm, we have clients in a a wide spectrum of industries including beverages, legal, hospitality, construction and wealth management.
On Saturday, Caroline and I celebrated our firm's lease with our tenant rep and his wife at Bone's. Today, we erected our logo on the wall to make it official.
When we started Wilbert News Strategies, our largest client, Carter, let us set up shop at its headquarters at 171 17th St. in Atlantic Station. It was a great set up and enabled the firm to grow quickly. Grow we did - to the point where we needed a space of our own. (Of course, WNS owes a big thank you to all Carter associates, especially President Scott Taylor, for helping make our launch possible two years ago. Carter remains our largest client, and we are honored to work for the company.)
When it came time to search for space, no doubt existed about whether to use a commercial Realtor. We asked Dale Lewis, a friend and Carter broker, to be our broker and assist us in our search. We toured several cool spaces and reconnected with old friends and sources as they toured us through their buildings.
We picked an office building in Midtown as our favorite, but we could not come to terms with the landlord. While we had a general idea of how much office space we desired, we had a much firmer idea of how much we could spend each month.
This led us to take a look at Peachtree 25th, a 10-story office tower in the Brookwood micro-market that we had not considered during Round 1. We checked out a couple spaces in the complex and then toured the space on the 10th floor that would become our new corporate home.
The owner of Peachtree 25th, Atlanta Property Group, did a great job working with us on getting a lease done. We signed a 5.5-year lease and moved into the top-floor space in March.
Since we moved in, we've only had one tenant rep cold call us in person (despite building policy allowing no solitication). We told him we are more than happy with Dale and Carter - and about not having to think about our office search for several years.
ATLANTA (Oct. 7, 2010) - Even as the country's office vacancy rate flirts with record levels, now is the time to start planning for the next wave of office construction. That's the point of view from tenant rep Ken Ashley, who hangs his shingle in Cushman & Wakefield's Atlanta office.
For the record, I agree with Ken, as you'll see when you read his post.
He lays out a pretty solid argument for starting the process now using five points. The first point is that it takes awhile to entitle and build office towers. Even the cookie-cutter four-story, 100,000 square feet office building in Suburb X can take 18 months. Towers take even longer, and two years out, the office market better be better (or we're all in trouble).
His second reason to start the process now is that while demand is a critical component, so too is money. Capital is out there chasing deals, and some of it will be dedicated to building - not just buying - product.
For Ashley's other three reasons, check out his post on The Commercial Tenant Resource.
By Tony Wilbert, WNS PR
ATLANTA (September 9 2010) - The Dew has done it.
John Dewberry closed this week on his stunning acquisition of Campanile in Midtown, according to Real Estate Rooster and Bisnow Atlanta. Bailey Webb, Rooster reporter, broke the news at 9:20 a.m. today. (Thanks to Rooster for the cool photo at left.)
The acquisition is stunning because Dewberry's bid for the former BellSouth headquarters tower was dead in the water only hours before he won the deal. We hear Dewberry's personal visit to Eastdil Secured's office sealed the deal after he was alerted he was not the winner - or even the runner-up.
Word is, Dewberry had the guts to put down $6 million hard to ensure he won the building he coveted. The purchase price was about $36 million.
For Dewberry, a friend and sometime client, buying Campanile further solidifies his position as a major Midtown property owner. He was Midtown when Midtown wasn't cool.
By Tony Wilbert, WNS PR
ATLANTA (Aug. 17, 2010) - 1075 Peachtree just might be the last speculative trophy office tower built in Atlanta. That's my assessment after reading Henry Unger's column in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Here's how I reached this conclusion. In Henry's column, Studley President Michael Colacino and key Atlanta executive Clark Dean offer their thoughts on the national office market. Coliacino states bluntly that office tenants today are "in a positon of control like never before."
That's interesting. But the most though-provoking comment from the execs is that the days of developing speculative trophy towers without any preleasing are gone - forever. Forget about getting a lender to fund one of these again. Based on this logic, 1075 Peachtree would be the last spec trophy office tower in Atlanta.
Daniel Corp. and Selig Enterprises developed 1075 Peachtree, the office component of the massive 12th & Midtown mixed-use development, on a pure spec basis, with no tenants signed. And at 725,000 square feet, 1075 Peachtree is the largest multitenant office tower developed in Atlanta since - hell, since SunTrust Plaza.
The office tower at 1075 Peachtree has landed several tenants, including law firms Seyfarth Shaw and Fisher & Phillips. It also signed Boston Consulting Group, and we hear another high-profile law firm is seriously considering the 38-story tower with a Loews Hotel built in.
If 1075 Peachtree indeed is the last of the spec trophy office towers in Atlanta, at least it will have a bunch of high-profile tenants - and a nice seven-figure light wall - to celebrate.
By Tony Wilbert, WNS PR
ATLANTA (Aug. 12, 2010) - While news of large office leases in Atlanta is good to hear, the metro area's office market won't really bounce back until the region begins creating new jobs again, Cousins Properties CEO and President Larry Gellerstedt said today.
"Truly there's 25-30 percent vacancy" in Buckhead, Midtown and Downtown, Gellerstedt said. "Nothing really gets better until there's true job growth." Compounding the issue: tenants typically require less space than they used to, he added.
So while watching landlords "steal tenants from each other" is good sport, "none of us really wins in an environment where there's no real job growth going on," Gellerstedt said.
Gellerstedt made his comments during a "fireside chat" with local business columnist Maria Saporta and Republican candidate for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens at the Databank Mid Year Real Estate Symposium. The half-day event, which attracted an overflow crowd, is being held at The Temple in Midtown.
Olens, who resigned in March as chairman of the Cobb County Commission to run for attorney general, said metro Atlanta must regain its competitive edge to ensure it doesn't lose new job opportunities to areas such as Research Triangle Park, N.C., where "the government is throwing around [incentive] dollars like it's water."
"We always assumed that we didn't have to reinvest in Atlanta because the jobs would automatically be here," Olens told the crowd.
So, when will metro Atlanta's job picture improve? This year should be a wash, and the area should gain 50,000 jobs the next two years after. "Atlanta is getting better, but ... we've got some catching up to do first," Gellerstedt said.
Recent Comments