Morris & Fellows Sells Downtown Woodstock Redevelopment
Morris & Fellows, the Atlanta firm known for historic downtown redevelopments like Alpharetta, has sold its historic street retail holdings in Woodstock to prepare to launch the city's City Center development.
Myrtle Beach-based Burroughs & Chapin purchased the six-building portfolio in Downtown Woodstock — 315 and 335 Chambers St., home to J. Christophers and Canyon's Burger; the Hubbard House at 125 East Main St.; and buildings at 120, 129 and 405 Chambers St., which are leased to Pure Taqueria, Dress Up Boutique and Prime 120 steakhouse — for an undisclosed price.
Morris & Fellows redeveloped the retail properties between 2006 and 2012. Morris & Fellows President Cheri Morris told Bisnow she had been mulling a possible divestiture from Downtown Woodstock last year. Earlier this year, she said Burroughs & Chapin executives invited her to dinner to discuss Atlanta's high street retail scene but, instead shifted to their interest in acquiring her Woodstock project. Within 90 days of that dinner, Morris said, the deal closed.
“If we were going to divest … it had to be with just the right high-quality firm that was already in this unique real estate type and who could caretake the project and our tenants very well,” she said. “I feel very confident … that they understood the complexities and nuances of working in historic retail districts.”
Burroughs & Chapin owns and operates a number of high street retail centers in Southern cities, including the 700K SF Broadway at the Beach mixed-use project in Myrtle Beach, the 69K SF retail and office project Lumina Station in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the 26K SF Broughton Street retail portfolio in Downtown Savannah.
“These assets are positioned at the center of Woodstock’s unique urban core, which Morris & Fellows transformed to be the heartbeat of a now vibrant downtown,” Burroughs & Chapin Director of Acquisitions Austin Burris said in a press release.
The transformation of Downtown Woodstock, 30 miles north of Downtown Atlanta along Interstate 575, has increased property values in the area more than tenfold, according to Morris & Fellows. Its project has been awarded the “Development of Excellence” by the Urban Land Institute and “Development of the Year” by the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Morris & Fellows is now gearing up, in partnership with the Woodstock government, to build a new mixed-use project next door to its just-sold properties. City Center is set to include a five-story, 650-car parking deck that will be wrapped by a 120-room boutique hotel, 45K SF of retail and restaurants, 43K SF of boutique office and 20 luxury condominium units.
