News
COUSINS SELLING ON PEACHTREE?
April 23, 2012
A long, long time ago. In a galaxy far, far away. Well, not really. It's happening now right here in Atlanta. And Cousins Properties may be selling land in Midtown for a giant proton beam medical treatment facility. | ||
The Georgia Proton Treatment Center, a planned $225M, 100k SF proton laser facility that will be used to treat cancer and owned by Nevada-based Advanced Particle Therapy and co-operated by Emory Healthcare, has placed Cousins' 615 Peachtree St site under contract, says APT's president Jeff Bordok. Jeff also says there's a second unspecified site, one owned directly by Emory, which the firm also is evaluating, although an approved Georgia Certificate of Need application only cites the Cousins land. ?It's between the two sites right now,? he says. ?We should know by the end of the month.? The more than two-acre site is bounded by Peachtree, North, and Ponce de Leon avenues, and is within walking distance (or a laser beam) of the Fox Theater. Cousins Properties CEO Larry Gellerstedt (above) confirmed the land was under contract but declined to ID the buyer. | ||
We chatted with Larry last week about the site (which we painted using one million yellow highlighters for your viewing ease). If you recall, the site was originally slated for a planned mixed-use project by Cousins called Fox Plaza, one of many mega developments in Atlanta that died with the economy in the mid-2000s. And for Cousins, the pending sale of 615 Peachtree is part of a larger corporate strategy to reduce its percentage of CRE holdings in Atlanta in favor of other locations, including Texas and NC, where the firm is expected to move forward on a mixed-use project near the University of NC similar to Emory Point here. ?Although Atlanta will still be our predominant market, we would like to have less of a emphasis on Atlanta,? says Larry, who is also one of our panelists this Wednesday at our 3rd Annual Atlanta Real Estate Summit at the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead. | ||
Cousins also has Eastdil marketing Ten Peachtree Place for sale, a key office tower in Atlanta that is home to AGL Resources' HQ. The company also sold One Georgia Center for $48M last year. But Larry says the firm will look to continue developing here as well. Its next project will be the second phase of Emory Point, which will include another round of apartments and retail, with a potential start day sometime in Q2 2013. | ||