North American Properties Buying Colony Square?
Fresh from its sale of Atlantic Station's retail village, North American Properties is on to its next Midtown acquisition. Yes, there's retail. And a whole lot of office. The firm—in a JV with Houston-based Lionstone Investments—has been selected to buy Colony Square, the 955,400 SF mixed-use office project (which includes the 140k SF Colony Square Mall) in the heart of Midtown Atlanta from Tishman Speyer and Rialto Capital Management for nearly $170M. We first reported here that Eastdil Secured had been tapped by Tishman to sell Colony Square, now more than 85% leased; Tishman hoped for a price around the $160M mark. Tishman managed to turn Colony Square around, retiring its $116M CMBS loan with a capital infusion with Rialto Capital Management, as well as renovation of the project, including a $5M infusion in the mall.
This is a quick reinvestment into a prominent Midtown property after NAP and CBRE Global Investors sold the 500k-plus SF retail mini-city to Morgan Stanley's PRIME diversified core real estate fund (in partnership with Hines Interests) for some $200M, or more than double what NAP picked that portion of Atlantic Station up for in 2010. Officials with Tishman Speyer and Eastdil could not be reached for comment. And The Wilbert Group's Tony Wilbert, who represents NAP, declined to comment.
