Four Big Stories At This Morning's State of the Market
Our event this morning contained more knowledge than a library. (What's a library, you ask?) Here are four takeaways:
Tishman isn't the only developer that could go spec.
Regent Partners is eyeing the possibility of spec on a Buckhead tower it's calling Capital City Plaza II. Next to Parkway Properties' Capital City Plaza that recently landed the HQ for PulteGroup, it could exceed 500k SF, says Regent's David (right, chatting with Parkway Properties' John Barton). When we asked if Regent was definitely going spec, David just responded, “We'll see.” (It's hip to be coy.)
It was standing-room only and record attendance of more than 500 at the Westin Buckhead. Atlanta's top chiefs of industry were out in force to talk about what's in store for our city, including Cousins Properties Larry Gellerstedt, Regent Partners' David Allman, North American Properties' Mark Toro, Pattillo Construction's Larry Callahan, and Oliver McMillan's Hunter Richardson. Here are four huge tidbits of news we learned this morning:
But Tishman is definitely giving the impression it's moving forward.
Some of the panelists openly speculated that Tishman would hit the market first with a new spec Buckhead office tower. (So the panelists were going spec on spec.) We snapped Cushman & Wakefield's John O'Neill, who thinks we'll see a Tishman project break ground this year, here with AGH's Randy Gold. We reported here when Tishman released images of its 500k SF proposed Three Alliance Center tower. John says though that Tishman, with a rapidly improving job market, could go with no debt behind it.
3630 Peachtree To break all records?
Regent's David did also air the possibility that Pope & Land and Duke Realty's 3630 Peachtree tower could be sold for an all-time record price in Atlanta. “$50/SF more than what they were projected six months ago,” David says. “The market is flush with capital. You also are beginning to see, with the job growth, the capital flows moving fairly aggressively to Atlanta.” While he did not speculate on a price, a few CRE pros quietly tell us many of Atlanta's current landlord slate have already been outbid, and the new owner will be paying well north of $350/SF—nearly the record per SF price paid by Parkway Properties in 2010 for 3344 Peachtree.
Mark DiShaw is back!
One of our panelists is a vet returning to the front lines of Atlanta's industrial real estate market. Trammell Crow Co's Mark DiShaw (right, with Pattillo Construction's Larry Callahan) even says he's looking to go spec in a big way here. Mark, of course, was the face of First Industrial Realty Trust in Atlanta for a good number of years, but says he battened down the hatches in Charleston during the recession, being lured back into the fight by Trammell Crow. (Let's brainstorm on a good welcome back gift for him.) With more than 5M SF of absorption this year so far, and less than 1M SF of new deliveries, Mark plans to go spec with a 317k SF cross-dock facility in Fairburn by this summer. And he's on the hunt for land plays along I-85 both north and south, and along I-20W.
