A Birmingham-based real estate investment company is establishing a self-storage investment division based in Atlanta.

Capital Growth Buchalter hired former Public Storage development executive Mike Vahle to work alongside Managing Partner Eric Buchalter with plans to develop, acquire and reposition self-storage facilities mainly throughout the Southeast and Sun Belt markets. The new company is named Capital Growth StoreGuard.

Its debut acquisition is a 39K SF, 358-unit storage facility in Hinesville, Georgia, where the firm plans to add another 12K SF and 137 units.

Buchalter said he sees StoreGuard’s opportunity in consolidating the self-storage sector, which is mainly held by independent owners, according to a press release.

PERSONNEL

Atlanta-based Hospitality Ventures Management Group has promoted two executives: Melissa Arana and Denise Hanas. HVMG named Arana as the vice president of revenue strategies while Hanas has been tapped to be the corporate director of marketing strategy.

Joining HVMG in 2011, Arana previously acted as a corporate director of revenue strategy. A former Marriott International executive, Hanas joined the firm in 2020 and helped lead its marketing strategy through the pandemic.

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A former leasing and business development executive with the Braves Development Co. has joined Bull Realty. John Thursby was tapped by Bull as a commercial real estate agent for the retail sector, jumping over from the development arm of the Atlanta Braves.

Bull also named John Westmoreland as an investment sales and leasing industrial broker with the firm.

LEASES

Atlanta SMART Academy, a charter performing arts school, has expanded its campus from 20K SF to 30K SF at Hightower Station, a 57K SF retail plaza off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Southwest Atlanta, a complex owned by Halpern Enterprises.

SMART focuses on art, math and science education for children in fifth through eighth grades.

Kimbrough Law inked a 4,400 SF, three-year lease with Lincoln Property Company Southeast for space at Lenox Center, the 11-story, 141K SF office building in Buckhead. Lincoln Senior Vice President Hunter Henritze, Vice President Matt Fergus and associate Robert deGolian brokered the deal for the landlord, listed as Merit Life Insurance Co., according to Reonomy.

DEVELOPMENT

Taylor & Mathis, a privately held local development firm, is planning a two-warehouse industrial complex in Lithia Springs. The firm applied for a rezoning of 134 acres in Douglas County, some 20 miles west of Downtown Atlanta. The project at 1971 Rock House Road would total 898K SF and deliver by 2025, according to the application.

CORRECTION, MARCH 16, 12:30 P.M. ET: A previous version of this story misspelled Mike Vahle's name and misstated Eric Buchalter's title. This story has been updated.