This Week's Deal Sheet: Shake Shack Opening Office Hub At The Battery

Gourmet burger chain Shake Shack is opening up an office and training center in an office building owned by the Atlanta Braves across from the Major League Baseball team's home park.

Shake Shack signed an office lease for more than 25K SF at Two Ballpark Center, the company announced.

Shake Shack is taking the first floor of the building, where it will build a test kitchen, meeting rooms and a training center. This is the third such office operation for a Shake Shack, behind its original in New York and a support center in Hong Kong, according to the company. 

“By expanding our Support Center footprint to Atlanta, we’ll have the tools needed to fuel our next stage of growth, with spaces dedicated to enhancing how our teams connect, train and innovate,” Shake Shack CEO Rob Lynch said in the release.

Shake Shack, with more than 330 company-owned locations in the U.S. and 250 licensed eateries in 20 countries, announced late last year that it was opening a new restaurant at The Battery this summer, its first location with a full bar.

LEASING

Tire-maker Kumho Tire U.S.A. is relocating its North American headquarters to Perimeter Summit, the 1.7M SF office park in Central Perimeter overlooking Interstate 285. The tire company leased 14K SF, shifting its 50 employees to the new location from the Georgia-Pacific building in Downtown Atlanta.

The paper and pulp giant is converting that building partially into apartments and retail while keeping its headquarters there.

JLL’s Ryanne Pennington and Maren Christian represented Kumho in the deal. Kumho first opened its North American headquarters in Atlanta in 2016. 

FINANCING

Ashford Hospitality Trust extended its mortgage secured by the Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown, the 141-room hotel off Peachtree Street, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

The $12.3M loan’s maturity date was extended to February 2026 with a one-year extension option, and it has a floating rate of the secured overnight financing rate plus 2.75%.

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Columbus-based Greystone Properties obtained a $32.3M refinancing loan for its Greystone at Mulberry Grove apartment complex in Forston, Georgia. The landlord obtained a U.S. Housing and Urban Development 223(f) fixed-rate loan with a 35-year term.

Located at 4849 Georgia Highway 315, the 222-unit complex has 22 residential buildings and is 11 miles outside of Columbus, Georgia. BWE’s Paul Harbor, Caleb Carter, Libby Davis and Maria Sealy secured the loan for the landlord.

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Holder Properties, in partnership with Tamarack Investments, has secured a $46M construction loan for its 609K SF Coal Mountain Industrial Park project in Forsyth County. 

Pinnacle Financial Partners is the lender on the deal, which also involved $25M in joint venture equity from Hartford Investment Management Co. JLL’s Bobby Norwood, Hamp Gibbs and Streeter Simmons arranged the financing. 

Coal Mountain off of Settingdown Road in Cumming is set to deliver in phases beginning in the second quarter of next year.

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Ameris Bank refinanced Old Highland Bakery, a two-building, 51K SF adaptive reuse office and retail project in Atlanta for the landlords, Vantage Realty Partners and Braden Fellman Group. The project, along Highland Avenue in the Historic Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, is fully leased with such tenants as Communidad Taqueria and Bodyrok, a pilates-inspired fitness concept.

Details of the loan were undisclosed. Patterson Real Estate Advisory Group’s Bill Mealor arranged the financing.

PERSONNEL

Newmark has tapped Nina Russo as managing director for its debt and structured finance practice, working between the Atlanta and New York offices and reporting to co-heads Jordan Roeschlaub and Jonathan Firestone.

Russo was hired to expand its capital markets footprint across the Southeast. Prior to Newmark, she worked in debt and equity capital markets with Meridian Capital Group, structuring more than $2B in financing.

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Mark Pasciuto has been named vice president with construction company Skanska in Atlanta, tasked with growing the firm’s presence throughout the metro area. Pasciuto has been with Skanska since 2016 and most recently helmed the construction of the $338M Signia by Hilton hotel at the Georgia World Congress Center.