Eversheds Sutherland Moves Into Bank Of America Plaza: The Atlanta Deal Sheet
One of Atlanta’s largest law firms has opened its doors in Atlanta’s tallest office tower.
Eversheds Sutherland, whose 178 Atlanta-based attorneys make it the fifth-largest local law firm, has leased the top four floors of the iconic Bank of America Plaza tower in Midtown.
The firm moved from 999 Peachtree into 94K SF in the 55-story, 1.3M SF tower, according to its landlord, CP Group. The lease — half the size of its previous home — was announced in 2024.
“Atlanta has been home to our firm for more than a century, so it was important to us that our new office maintains a strong connection to the city’s business community,” Eversheds Sutherland co-CEO Lino Mendiola said in a press release.
The new offices contain three practice floors and a dedicated amenity floor that includes a boardroom and conference center, visitor offices, an employee lounge and wellness accommodations.
LEASES
Academy Sports + Outdoors has inked a 53K SF deal for a new store at the 1.5M SF Fayette Pavilion, the state’s largest shopping center, at 72 Pavilion Parkway in Fayetteville.
The sporting goods retailer operates more than 10 stores in Georgia, including in Cartersville, Kennesaw, Snellville, Cumming and McDonough. Fayette Pavilion’s other major anchors include Target, Home Depot, PetSmart, Walmart and Publix Super Markets.
Franklin Street’s Sam Krueger brokered the deal.
Academy halted new store growth in 2019 but resumed a push into new markets in 2022, targeting areas farther outside of major cities and pushing inward, Academy CEO Steven Lawrence said during an April 8 JPMorgan Chase retail conference. It has been seeking between 50K SF and 65K SF with costs between $2M and $3.5M per store.
Lawrence said during the event that its 50K SF store that opened at the Perimeter Square Shopping Center in 2022 performed worse than a new store in Searcy, Arkansas, a city with a fraction of the nearby Central Perimeter population and about half of the median household income of $100K annually.
“The store in Atlanta did roughly $10M, and this is pro forma, versus the store in Searcy did over $16M in Year 1,” Lawrence said, citing a plethora of apartment-renting households that don’t have children and aren’t into outdoor activities.
He said Academy tweaked the merchandise mix, increased marketing and saw some improvement.
“We're not going to close the store, but it's not as successful as we hope,” he said.
DEVELOPMENT
Nalley Automotive Group is under contract to acquire a defunct hotel and an aging office building in Brookhaven for $150M to create a mixed-use project anchored by a luxury BMW dealership, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.
The automotive retailer is expected to close in October on the 13-acre site on North Druid Hills Road across from the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Arthur M. Blank Hospital, according to the ABC. Nalley plans to raze the shuttered DoubleTree Hotel and 6 West Druid Hills Drive, an 85K SF office building built in the 1960s.
The city of Brookhaven previously designated the site as being in danger of blight. Nalley told the ABC it plans to include high-end retail, entertainment, and food and beverage.
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Walmart announced plans to remodel 13 Georgia stores this year: supercenters in Augusta, Bairsville, Commerce, Cordele, Jesup, LaGrange, Loganville, Woodstock, Oakwood and Rincon. It also plans to spruce up Neighborhood Market stores in Grovetown, Hinesville and Snellville, according to a press release.
It is part of an effort to modernize more than 650 Walmart stores across the U.S.
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Vida Cos. has broken ground on Verona, a 280-unit apartment complex in Fairburn at the southwest corner of Landrum and Senoia roads. The four-story apartment complex will include a saltwater pool, grilling stations, a clubhouse, a fitness center, a coworking lounge, a dog park and 7K SF of retail space, including a coffee shop.
The project is expected to deliver in the fall of 2027.
SALES
Boston-based TA Realty paid $22.8M for land in Union City to build a 1M SF data center campus.
The company purchased the site late last month from Duluth-based Bright Star Commercial Properties, according to documents filed with the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority database.
TA filed an application with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs in 2024 to develop data centers off of Red Oak Road, Data Center Dynamics previously reported.
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WDG Real Estate Partners sold its 7,500 SF retail center in Covington for $4.1M to an undisclosed 1031 exchange buyer, according to Marcus & Millichap. Documents with the SCCCA identify the buyer as Alpharetta-based Gyan Ventures. The center, built in 2024 along Alcovy Road and across from Publix, is anchored by Peachtree Immediate Care and Mattress Warehouse.
WDG purchased the property in 2022 for $2.3M, according to Newton County property records. Marcus & Millichap’s Zach Taylor, Don McMinn, Eric Abbott and Brian Munn brokered the sale.
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Tampa-based American Landmark Apartments purchased Tramore Village, a 324-unit apartment community in Austell, for an undisclosed sum. The seller was Chicago-based RRE Tramore Village Holdings, an LLC tied to Blackstone’s Revantage, which purchased the complex in 2018 for $44.3M, according to Cobb County records.
The property at 2222 East West Connector was first developed in 1999. Its purchase was on behalf of its $400M American Landmark Fund V targeting Sun Belt real estate assets.
PERSONNEL
Lee & Associates hired Tommy Crowe and Luke Zabinski as directors in Atlanta. Crowe previously spent more than five years with SVN as a senior director, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Zabinski, focused on industrial and office sales, was most recently with the Stephen W. Wright Co., according to LinkedIn.
