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It All Starts With Real Estate, So Get Your Story Straight Before Telling It

ATLANTA (Sept. 26, 2014) - Real estate affects everyone, every day. We wake up in residential real estate, drop off kids at institutional real estate, stop at retail space for sweet tea, order gifts shipped from warehouses, go to work in office towers - and when we're lucky we travel to luxury resorts and stay at four- and five-star hotels. And when we die, we sign our final lease for a small graveyard spot.

So, it's vital that developers, owners, investors and dealmakers know how and when to communicate their plans and vision before someone does it for you. Messing up any step along the way can kill your dream project and cost you a lot of money. The Wilbert Group, the nation's leading real estate firm can help. Check out this Slideshare to find out how.

The Wilbert Group: How We Became The #1 PR Firm in Real Estate from The Wilbert Group

If you like what you see and what to improve your ROI with PR and communications, call me at 404-405-3656.

Atlanta Real Estate (and Republican) Legends Support Democrat Michelle Nunn's U.S. Senate Bid

ATLANTA (Nov. 1, 2013) - The same day Michelle Nunn, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, addressed a group of mainly Republic commercial Realtors, the national media highlighted her ability to raise money from supporters of the Grand Old Party.

And the names on Nunn's impressive list of donors include Atlanta real estate legends Tom Cousins and John Wieland, according to a story by Laura Litvan of Bloomberg. Nunn's centrist views are appealing to Republicans turned off by the Tea Party's hard-core stances.

“The vast majority of Americans say they don’t want the government to shut down, they want middle ground,” Wieland, founder of John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods Inc., tells Bloomberg. “Michelle understands that middle ground, and that’s why we wrote the checks."

On Thursday, Nunn addressed the Georgia chapeter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors in Cobb County. She agreed not to use the speech as a campaign event, though she did acknowledge her candidacy.

"To be in real estate, you have to be optimistic - even when it's not warranted," Nunn told the real estate professionals. Her husband also is in real estate.

Bloomberg's story gauned steam just as Nunn spoke. Several online outlets picked up the Bloomberg story. The day after Bloomebrg's story appeared, Atlanta Business Chronicle featured a story (subscription only) about Nunn's fundraising ability.

Bloomberg says John and his wife Sue Wieland wrote Nunn's campaign checks totaling $10,400 in her effort to win the Democratic U.S. Senate bid. In contrast, John and Sue Wieland contributed $4,800 each to the Republican Senate candidate in 2010, Bloomberg states.

For his part, Cousins has contributed $5,200 to Nunn's campaign, according to Bloomberg. The real estate magnate gave $50,000 to the Rebublican National Committee and $5,000 to Mitt Romney when he ran for president, according to Bloomberg.

Cousins has a history of getting involved in politics. His early support for Shirley Franklin helped her win two terms and mayor of Atlanta. Cousins then tried to catapult Lisa Borders to the same position, but Kasim Reed emerged the winner and faces re-election next week.

 

Bisnow Nails Big Scoop About Coca-Cola Moving 2,000 Jobs to Downtown Atlanta

Gotta give credit to Jarred Schenke of Bisnow Atlanta. On April 24, he broke the news Coca-Cola was eyeing SunTrust Plaza in downtown Atlanta for a multi-floor lease. On June 10, the company confirmed it will move 2,000 IT workers from suburban Cobb County to the Portman-designed SunTrust Plaza on the northern edge of downtown. In photo, SunTrust Plaza stands tall on the right border. The soon-to-be-former home of the Coke workers is to the northwest, under the clouds.

Atlanta PR Firm The Wilbert Group Signs for More Office Space in Buckhead

ATLANTA (March 22, 2013) - We'll officially announce this news later this spring. But, since it's public record and super sleuth Urvaksh Karkaria of Atlanta Business Chronicle found the building permit, here goes.

The Wilbert Group, a leading Atlanta PR firm with national reach, is expanding. We just signed a lease extension and expansion in our current building, Peachtree 25th in south Buckhead (owned by Atlanta Property Group, one of our clients).

We've been in our current space two years and already have outgrown it. Our conference room serves as a temporary office.

We'll relocate into a larger space on the third floor, overlooking Peachtree Street and Atlanta's newest Chipotle location at Brookwood Place. (Great scoop, Caleb of What Now Atlanta).

Stay tuned for more details and your invite to our open house.

Good News from #CarterBfast: Atlanta Mayor Reed Will Serve Entire Second Term if Re-Elected

ATLANTA (Nov. 8, 2012) - Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, fresh off helping President Obama retain his spot in Washington, has no plans to head to the Nation's Capital himself before 2017 if he's also re-elected next year.

Reed said he will serve every day of a second term if he wins re-election as Atlanta mayor in 2013. Reed said it's the "best job in the world." The mayor's anser was in response to Atlanta Business Chronicle Publsiher Ed Baker, who asked, "Are you guaranteeing us you're sticking around till 2017?"

(In photo at left, Carter President Scott Taylor, right, interviews Mayor Reed during the 2012 Carter Breakfast.)

The question came during the Carter Breakfast at the Atlanta History Center. One of the nation’s leading investment, development and advisory firms, Carter reintroduced the breakfast event this year to introduce its new brand and "Built on Bold" tagline. (Carter is a Wilbert News Strategies client.)

Reed acknowledged he's heard the rumors that he is considering taking on U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambless or a position in the Obama administration and heading to Washington before his second would expire. But that won't happen, the popular mayor told the crowd.

“He’s been pretty clear on that,” Sonji Jacobs, who heads communications for the mayor, told The Saporta Report today. “He is running for re-election, and he wants to be mayor for second term.”

National Spotlight Shines on Sea Island

ATLANTA (Aug. 11, 2010) - The pending sale of Sea Island and its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing are making national news this morning.

The Wall Street Journal prominently played a story about the "glittering resort" on the front of its Money & Investing section. WSJ reporters Carrick Mollenkamp and Lingling Wei are on the tony island, based on the article's Sea Island, Ga., dateline.

Several outlets reported news that Sea Island Co. had called a member meeting for 11 a.m. this morning to announce the sale. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Sea Island Chairman Bill Jones sent an e-mail to members last last night after the Journal reported Oaktree Capital and Avenue Capital had agreed to buy the 84-year-old resort for $197.5 million in cash.

The AJC played its story by Scott Trubey, who followed the Sea Island saga closely while at Atlanta Business Chronicle, and Dan Chapman on Page One. And this morning, Atlanta Business Chronicle posted a story saying Sea Island owes at least 1,000 creditors up to $1 billion, citing the bankruptcy filing.

Real Estate Rooster, the online news organization founded by Hardman Knox and Phillip Hight, determined the story warranted a special edition. Rooster crowed with the news at 6:03 a.m. today.

Now the big question is how will operations of The Lodge and The Cloister be affected? Early reports say they won't be. But the big funds buying Sea Island likely will have an eye toward making their investment pay off, and that could lead to some changes.

Either way, it's nice to see commercial real estate news in the limelight (even if it's not great news for Sea Island Co.).

Bottom Hit, What's Next for ATL Office Market?

ATLANTA (Aug. 9, 2010) - It's official: Atlanta's office market has "hit bottom," according to an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In the article, the AJC cited reports from Jones Lang LaSalle, CoStar and Grubb & Ellis saying Atlanta's office vacancy rate peaked (at 17 percent to 22 percent, depending on the source).

So what's next? Will the market begin an upward climb or bounce along the bottom for a while? We have seen some good signs such as the large leases signed recently in Buckhead. 

News of several of the six-figure office leases including Greenberg Traurig at Terminus 200 (left) and GE Energy at Parkwood Point in Cobb County has buoyed the spirits of brokers, especially landlord and tenant reps involved in the deals. Other recent big office deals actually will have a negative impact on net absorption as companies move to more-efficient spaces. And as last week's unemployment report shows, the job growth needed to create true net absorption probably won't materialize this year.

We should get some insight this week when local business columnist Maria Saporta interviews Cousins Properties CEO Larry Gellerstedt at the Databank Symposium on Thursday. In June, Gellerstedt said Atlanta's recovery remains "fragile and muted." It'll be interesting to hear what he thinks two months later. (2010 generally has been a pretty good year for REITs.)

It also will be interesting to hear from Georgia State University economist Rajeev Dhawan has to say at the Databank Symposium. In early 2009, Dhawan procrastinated that the national recession would not end until this year. The Databank crowd, of course, will want Dhawan to tell them when the commercial real estate market will turn.

Dewberry Runs Ultimate Quarterback Sneak

By Tony Wilbert, WNS PR

ATLANTA (July 26, 2010) - As we predicted about two weeks ago, the Chase for Campanile blossomed into the commercial real estate story, for this month anyway. The news also prompted reporters to break out their best gridiron/real estate analogies.

Early last week, word on the street said John Dewberry came out of nowhere and emerged as the leading contender to acquire the 440,000-square-foot former headquarters of BellSouth at Peachtree & 14th streets in Midtown. Because Dewberry, a former Georgia Tech and Georgia quarterback loves football analogies, we'll offer one here. John Dewberry ran the ultimate quarterback sneak on this one.

(Disclosure: WNS handled media relations for Dewberry Capital's March announcement of its joint venture with Gene Kansas Commercial Real Estate.)

The real estate press jumped on the story Thursday, with Real Estate Rooster, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Atlanta Business Chronicle posting stories. Real Estate Rooster blasted an e-mail with the headline: Dewberry Closes in on Campanile. Rooster writer Bailey Webb quoted an unnamed source saying Dewberry has coveted the former Bell tower for years. "If Dewberry Capital can cross the goal line" and complete the transaction, the firm will add to its impressive Midtown holdings, Webb writes.

Rachel Ramos' story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution included detailed information about the transaction, including a price tag of about $36 million. She quotes Cushman & Wakefield tenant rep Ken Ashley, who authors a blog, describing the Campanile as an "iconic asset."

In his story, the ABC's Doug Sams broke out a football analogy of his own: "The former Georgia Tech quarterback might pull it off, but he faces a challenge if he's going to lead Campanile on a comeback," Sams writes.

Knowing Dewberry, he's up for the challenge and will be happy to tell the world about Campanile when the time is right.

Nation's Top Commercial Real Estate Reporters Say It's Best Beat in Business

ATLANTA (June 21, 2010) - So you want to be a commercial real estate reporter? Then listen now to what the experts say.

The beat is dynamic, interesting, ever changing and even fun, three of the country's top commercial real estate reporters said on a panel at the NAREE convention this month in Austin, Texas. More than that, because of the predicted commercial mortgage meltdown and resulting flood of foreclosures, it's the business beat of 2010.

"There's always stories in commercial real estate," said Dan Taub, who covers commercial real estate out of Los Angeles for Bloomberg. "There's always buildings being built, buildings going under. Commercial real estate people love to talk."

Steve Brown, who's covered real estate at the Dallas Morning News "since like the Hoover administration, fell into the beat. He agreed that CRE people love to talk "and they usually know what they're talking about."

Commercial real estate's swashbucklers and characters make the beat anything but boring, the panelists said. "The players usually want to talk," Brown said. "They're full of bulls--t, don't think they're not. But at least they'll talk."

Kris Hudson, who focuses on retail and hotel coverage at The Wall Street Journal, says commercial real estate affects anyone who shops, works and stays at hotels - in other words, everyone.

"It's important to think of commercial real estate as part of the mix," he says. "It's all interconnected."

At regional dailies across the country reporters who traditionally covered residential real estate are being asked to cover commercial as well - partly because of cutbacks designed to save money. This is what prompted NAREE to put together its "So You're New to the Beat" panel that attracted scores of conference attendees.

Shannon Behnken, who covers residential real estate at the Tampa Tribune, moderated the panel. She also has started to cover more commercial real estate. She's likely to enjoy doing it, according to Hudson's comments.

"It's actually kind of fun once you figure it out," Hudson says. "Real estate is of interest and of great influence in any community."

One key to success, Hudson says, is to cultivate sources at real estate brokerage firms and banks. "They love to talk about other brokers' deals." As someone who covered the beat for several years, I concur. That advice is spot on.

NAREE Panel: No Quick Turnaround for CRE

By Tony Wilbert

 AUSTIN, Texas (June 2, 2010) - Despite encouraging signs, effects of the commercial real estate recession will reverberate for the next couple years. That's the key takeaway from a panel of CRE experts who spoke today at the National Association of Real Estate Editors' 44th Annual Journalism Conference.

NAREE board member and National Real Estate Investor Editor Matt Valley, left, moderated the panel. He opened it with a few encouraging stats about increased investment sales activity and bidding wars for well-located, solidly performing assets. He also noted that Steve Pumper of Transwestern had to miss the panel because he was working on a deal. "That's a good sign," Valley said.

The panel pretty much stayed away from the question raised in the panel's title: "Commercial Realty Trends: The Next Meltdown or Not?" That is until Jeff Collins, real estate reporter at the Orange County Register, asked if CRE is headed for a meltdown.

Probably not, panelists said, but the small signs of an upturn might be fleeting. Expect to commercial real estate to be flat at best for a while, they added.

"I don't see us going into a double-dip recession, but we won't be enjoying an uptick for a couple years at least," said David Steinwedell, managing partner of Austin-based Stoneforge Advisors LLC. A former Wells Real Estate Funds executive, Steinwedell said the current "pricing bubble" for well-performing, quality assets soon would flatten.

Panelist Jeff Friedman, co-CEO of Mesa West Capital of Los Angeles, told the audience a double-dip real estate recession is a possibility. "What we're doing is not taking the medicine we should be taking," he said. "We're prolonging and amortizing the pain."

For his part, panelist Mitch Siegler, senior managing director of Pathfinder Partners, said commercial real estate will be in "a digestive mode" for the next three or four years because supply is well ahead of demand.