This Week's Atlanta Deal Sheet: AJC Moving Headquarters Back To The City
Atlanta's largest daily newspaper is moving back to the city.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is moving back inside the Perimeter after more than a decade in the suburbs. The newspaper inked a 21K SF lease at Promenade Central in Midtown for its newsroom and studio, the paper reported.
The AJC's move is seen as helping it achieve 500,000 paid digital subscribers by the end of 2026, AJC Publisher and President Andrew Morse told the paper.
“It’s really important to be at the beating heart of the city,” Morse said.
The paper moved to Central Perimeter in 2009 to be closer to its parent company's headquarters. Before then, the AJC was in Downtown Atlanta for 140 years, including at 72 Marietta St.
The AJC is expected to move into Promenade Central by the end of the year. CBRE Executive Vice President Eric Ross and Director Rusty Kigelman brokered the deal for the AJC.
LEASES
South African chicken chain Nando’s Peri-Peri signed for a 3,300 SF restaurant space at High Street in Central Perimeter, one of a host of new tenants at the mixed-use development, including Velvet Taco, menswear retailer Allen Edmonds and skincare purveyor Skin Spirit.
JLL Executive Vice President Molly Morgan represented the landlord, GID, while The Shopping Center Group tenant representative Matt Rotenstreich brokered the deal for Nando’s. CBRE Senior Vice President Amy Fingerhut represented Velvet Taco in its 2,300 SF deal, IDQ Realty Advisors principal Iggy de Quesada represented Skin Spirit in its 2,300 SF lease, and TSCG Executive Vice President Michele Reale brokered Allen Edmonds' 1,800 SF lease.
DEVELOPMENT
The state of Georgia is planning to develop a new 260K SF legislative office building on the south side of the Capitol. The eight-story building also will include a skybridge to the Capitol and an adjacent 500-car parking deck and was part of a budget package approved by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday. Funds to add a new layer of gold to the capital's iconic dome were also approved.
***
New City Properties is planning a June delivery and opening for Fourth, a $150M boutique hotel at the firm’s Fourth Ward development a couple of blocks from Ponce City Market. The 16-story, 196-room hotel will include 39 rooms reserved for extended stays and have four food and beverage concepts, an elevated outdoor pool, a fitness center and a members-only social club.
Philadelphia-based Method Co. has been tapped to manage the property.
***
Joint venture partners DSM Real Estate Partners and Garage Cap have begun construction on Chambray Hotel, a five-story boutique hotel at the intersection of Alpharetta Highway and Frasier Street in Downtown Roswell’s historic district. The 125-room hotel will include a 1,300 SF meeting space, a fitness center and a 24-hour market.
The developers tapped Swinerton as the general contractor for the project.
***
The Georgetown Co. and RocaPoint Partners are developing a six-story, 300K SF office building called The Stacks at their Campus 244 project, the former Gold Kist headquarters campus, in Central Perimeter, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.
FINANCING
Ashford Hospitality Trust reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it is negotiating with lenders to refinance a host of loans, including the $13.8M loan tied to the Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown, an 11-story, 141-room hotel off Peachtree Street, across from the Fox Theatre.
The loan, which matures in December, has a floating rate of Secured Overnight Financing Rate plus 2.85%, according to the filing. The hotel posted an $800K loss in 2023 but $1.8M in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Ashford purchased the Hotel Indigo in 2015 for $26.4M and refinanced it in 2017. First built in 1924 as the Cox-Carlton Hotel, it later became a Days Inn between 1985 and 2004 before being branded the Hotel Indigo.
