News
TOP O' THIS MORNING
July 1, 2010
| Despite the 24 inches of rain that followed its groundbreaking last September (and an even gloomier economy), Ackerman & Co. and R. J. Griffin & Co. had the rare pleasure this morning of a topping out for a new 60k SF build-to-suit office building in Alpharetta. | |
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| The new tenant/owner at 9115 Westside Pkwy, AdvancED, is parent company of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement. Translation: a highly educated workforce (90 employees) migrating from its inside-the-perimeter location a year ago—26K SF behind the VA Hospital in Decatur—to a mile away from its new building site in Alpharetta, where it subleased 26K SF in the interim. It will make a permanent move to the new digs in October. Construction costs were $9M, with another $1.65M in land. Hours ago, we took this of Warren Epstein & Associates Architects? Kyle Epstein, R.J Griffin's Jerry Bose, Ackerman?s Ted Schwartz, AdvancED?s Dr. Mark Elgart and Kenneth Bergman, R.J. Griffin?s Brian Smallwood, Ackerman?s Pat Chesser, and R.J. Griffin?s Jarrett Keim. | |
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| This open room (not yet complete) will be AdvancED's new conference room in the fall, but today it served as a light space for a BBQ buffet lunch, with plenty of iced tea and banana pudding for dessert. Mark says less expensive land, good schools, plus the fact that most of company's employees live north of the perimeter, aided in the site selection. About 50 workers also received special T-shirts that read: "AdvancED World Headquarters Topping Out July 1, 2010." The building is seeking LEED Gold. R.J. Griffin is diverting about 95% of the construction waste from the site, among other measures such as energy modeling, solar power, and drip line irrigation. (We gingerly applied our BBQ sauce the same way—rip line irrigation.) | |
