News
HOW GOES MIDTOWN?
October 28, 2010
| Despite having one of the highest office vacancy rates in the state at 27%, Midtown has been showing some positive momentum, namely that tenants are ready to make long-term decisions. That was the word from JLL's Brad Armstrong at yesterday's Bisnow Breakfast & Schmooze ?How Goes Midtown?? at the Georgia Tech Conference Center. | |
 | |
| Brad told the 400 on hand that two years ago, companies were too timid to make any long term decisions. But that's changed: "Our clients feel like they've touched the bottom of the pool" and are making long-term leasing commitments. And frankly "we're telling them now is a good time to go along with real estate commitments." | |
 | |
| Brad was one of a seven members in an illustrious panel entertaining and educating attendees. Sharing views about one of Atlanta's largest office submarkets: Dewberry Capital's John Dewberry, Jamestown's Matt Bronfman, Hines' Kurt Hartman, Daniel Corp.'s Steve Baile, and Seyfarth Shaw's Carl Westmoreland. | |
 | |
| Matt says Midtown is the best submarket in Atlanta for long-term owners of commercial real estate since it ?has the best story in the market.? Strong demographics, excellent transportation and highway access, plus the presence of both Georgia Institute of Technology and Savannah College of Art & Design's Atlanta campus all help to put people on the streets. ?The main competition, Downtown, has many more problems. (Now we have to host an event there so it can defend itself.) And what's Buckhead have going for it?It's got a mall,? Matt quipped. ?And it's a really good mall.? | |
 | |
| Perhaps one of the most anticipated speakers was John Dewberry(a former Georgia Tech QB), who recently made big waves after buying the 446K SF Campanile building at auction for $35M, nearly a third of what Transwestern paid at the peak of the market (and subsequently got foreclosed). John hinted that the loan troubles on the One Peachtree Pointe building—right on Peachtree Street—may finally be behind him: ?We're actually going through a restructuring on Peachtree Pointe, where we didn't participate in the leasing environment." His firm has worked something out that allows it to "compete again at the higher level? with more competitive rents and TI packages. ?At this point, certainly in Atlanta, in most trophy assets, you've certainly hit bottom and will go in the other direction,? John says. He also hinted that renovations are coming for Campanile, including a ?reglazing.? ?We think it's kind of the last AOL-Time Warner site left in Atlanta.? | |
 | |
| Our terrific sponsor Servcorp can say great things about the Midtown market. We recognized Alex Tharp, Allison Livezey, Juliette Colon, and Kristin Cooper during the event. Servcorp—which provides executive suites and virtual offices— recently opened its first Midtown location at Daniel's 12th and Midtown project, has a location at Terminus 200, and has further expansion plans in the metro area. | |
 | |
| And we also appreciate sponsor HITT Contracting (with John Hightower, Shaw Overstreet, and Erik Kandler in attendance), which also has had a big impact on Midtown's skyline. The firm handled the 177K SF LEED Silver build-out of Invesco's HQ at Dewberry's Two Peachtree Pointe, a project that got a big shoutout from John during the event when he called the Invesco HQ one of the best projects he's ever done. |
