News
INDUSTRIAL UPSWING
November 15, 2012
| Some of Atlanta's top industrial CRE leaders say a boom in the market is coming. All we need is just a little patience (which is hopefully the last time we have to quote Axl Rose in this business). Over 200 attendees yesterday got the details during Bisnow's third annual Atlanta Industrial Summit at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead. | ||
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| ?We're all sitting here saying, ?Hey, shouldn?t we be first??? says Seefried Properties CEO Rob Rakusin, when asked why Atlanta is lagging behind other major industrial markets like California?s Inland Empire and New Jersey. ?Our time?s coming." It was a sentiment echoed by Weeks Robinson SVP Marty McFarland believes Atlanta is one year behind Dallas. | ||
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| If you think CRE is straight-laced and boring, think again. We presented CBRE's Chris Riley (right, next to moderator Summey Orr of Hartman Simons) with a bouquet of balloons for his 50th birthday. Aside from getting red-faced, Chris did say Atlanta leaders need to better focus on our infrastructure to keep our edge as an industrial leader. Citing Dallas as the ?most infrastructure-served market? in the US, Chris says Atlanta should have an expansion of our interstate system. ?For us not to have a second perimeter, or some component of that… is absolutely absurd,? he says. ?There are cities less our size that are building a second perimeter.? | ||
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| While IDI has 9.5M SF of new industrial projects under way or planned across the country , Lisa Ward says the company is on a selling spree as well. With cap rates for industrial properties getting further compressed, Lisa says IDI plans to unload 7.8M SF of warehouses and distribution centers this year. (Set aside one of those warehouses for us, we have a lot of marionette puppets to store.) It's a strategy that Lisa says she would use if she could go back in time to '07: "Sell every property you have in your portfolio that's sellable." Also, Lisa says it would have been better to wait to buy land positions until today, which are going for a 40% discount. | ||
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| During our coffee and schmooze, we chatted with Huntington Industrial Partners' Lathan Allen, who—as we reported earlier this year—joined up with the Dallas company to buy industrial locally. And buy it did. Huntington picked up a portion of that giant Prologis portfolio sale from last month: five of the centers totaling 660k SF, including Atlanta West warehouse complex. Lathan says his firm is still seeking value-add warehouses throughout the Southeast. (Now you know what to get it for Christmas.) |
