A Japanese life insurance company could be re-entering the Atlanta office market a decade after it sold its Midtown trophy asset. This time it would be in Buckhead.
Sumitomo Life Realty is under contract to buy Atlanta Financial Center, the 911k SF distinctive, glass-encased office building that straddles Georgia 400 in the heart of the Buckhead financial district, sources tell us.
And Sumitomo could be paying in excess of $220M, or about $245/SF, for the iconic building that's home to Morris Manning & Martin and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, sources say. The building is currently owned by Hines Interests and its JV partner, General Motors Asset Management. Colliers International shows AFC at 86% leased with gross asking rents at $35.50/SF.
Calls to Sumitomo and Hines, as well as Eastdil Secured, which has been tapped to market the building, were not returned as of press time.
If the deal closes, it marks a return of Sumitomo to the Atlanta trophy office market after a 10-year absence when it sold the 50-story One Atlantic Center (here) in Midtown to Hines. Sumitomo purchased that tower in 1988 for some $300M, a record price for Atlanta at the time. It sold to Hines for roughly the same amount.
Hines has owned Atlanta Financial Center for some 15 years after it paid $154M to buy it. Hines just recently sold One Atlantic Center to Starwood Capital for over $300/SF. It also caps a year where investors have not shied away from paying in excess of $200/SF for office assets in Atlanta, including Union Investment Real Estate paying $357/SF for 10 Tenth St in Midtown and Banyan Street Capital paying $211/SF for Atlanta Plaza in Buckhead, according to Colliers International data.
