Ackerman Unveils Updated Abernathy 400
Ackerman & Co has spruced up plans for Abernathy 400, redesigning the renderings and marketing materials as some potential big tenants eye the area. Ackerman's Kris Miller says current plans call for two of these above buildings at 275k SF each, but for the right tenant, it could be one 550k SF building. The big question is will those people pay $32/SF on rents for new construction? It's the main challenge facing all developers in Atlanta right now – with rents for office averaging in the low to mid $20's for Class A space, finding a tenant willing to go $10 more is no easy convincing. “You can't do it for $22/SF. So the question will be which of those big fish actually moves?”
Ackerman also revealed at its investor conference last week that it has plans to develop a new medical office campus in Newnan (known as the Newnan Centre for Health), near the Cancer Center of America facility and nearby Piedmont Newnan Hospital. In a JV with Batson-Cook Development Company, Ackerman has secured the 25-acre site (above) where it plans to develop 250k SF in MOBs, “with the first building in pre-development for 40k SF,” Kris says.
