Bank Secures Signage Prominence In Buckhead Expansion

A growing bank is taking a chunk of prime Buckhead office space and the skyline marquee to boot.

SouthState Corp. inked an 87K SF lease at Prominence Tower in Buckhead with the building's owner, New York Life Real Estate Investors. SouthState also will get its sign atop the 19-story tower, according to an announcement by Partners Real Estate.

Andy Sumlin and Aileen Almassy, ​​partners with Partners, represented the landlord of the building near the intersection of Piedmont and Lenox roads.

JLL Executive Managing Director Josh Hirsh, who represented SouthState, confirmed to Bisnow that the bank will be moving from its current office at Resurgens Plaza in Buckhead to Prominence Tower roughly a mile to the west.

The lease is 22% larger than its total footprint in the Atlanta area, which spans more than 68K SF across three buildings, according to CoStar data obtained by Bisnow.

“This transaction demonstrates the market's desire for top-tier properties like Prominence Tower with a high-quality, amenity-rich environment as well as a well-capitalized stable ownership,” Almassy said in a statement. “We believe that this lease will serve as a benchmark for excellence and help continue to attract other prestigious tenants to Prominence Tower.”

SouthState is the latest deal in a resurgence for the embattled Metro Atlanta office market, where the vacancy rate topped 25% in the third quarter. But major CRE executives noted in the fall that big deals were coming back — tenants leased more than 2M SF in Q3, a 30% jump year-over-year. Asbury Automotive, engineering

g firm HNTB, warehouse robotics maker Exotec and law firm Morris Manning & Martin signed large office deals in recent months.

While the Prominence space is much larger than SouthState's 38K SF Resurgens Plaza footprint, it is unclear if the new office represents organic growth for the firm. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that the bank, which is based in Winter Haven, Florida, was combining multiple Atlanta-area offices into the central hub.

Hirsh declined to comment on whether other offices were being consolidated at the 440K SF Prominence Tower, and SouthState didn't respond to a request for comment. Almassy said the bank will also move operations from its spread at Piedmont Center in Buckhead to its new space.

The bank leases 17K SF from Ardent Cos. at Piedmont Center, the 2.2M SF office park that is reportedly at risk of being seized by its lender, BlackRock. It also has 13K SF at Platinum Tower in the Cumberland/Galleria submarket, according to CoStar.

SouthState's growing office footprint reflects the bank's broader expansion.

Earlier this year, the institution, which had $46B in assets as of Q3, agreed to buy Texas-based Independent Bank Group in an all-stock transaction worth around $2B. SouthState also made 14 new banking executive hires earlier this week, including five in Georgia.

T. Dallas Smith & Co. principal Cedric Matheny said buildings that offer signage in a high-visibility area are especially attractive to banks in particular. He said he helped a financial institution negotiate signage on an office building in Orlando after the original marquee holding downsized.

“Most banks want signage. Branding is a big thing, and good signage, well-placed signage in a market, just helps the brand,” Matheny said. “If it's a well-known brand that can bring some recognition to the building, I think that is advantageous to the landlord to bring in more tenants.”