Blackstone Alum Henritze Partners With Cousins To Buy Midtown Atlanta Office Tower
A new real estate investment firm founded by a former Blackstone executive partnered with Cousins Properties to buy a Midtown office for 30% less than its previous sale price.
New York-based Town Lane and Cousins purchased the Proscenium, a 526K SF tower at the corner of 14th and Peachtree streets, for $83M from Manulife Financial Corp., Cousins announced. The roughly $157 per SF sale means Town Lane and Cousins picked up the 24-story office tower at around a 30% discount to the $118M Manulife paid in 2004.
The all-cash transaction leaves Town Lane owning 80% of the tower with Cousins holding the remaining 20% stake. Cousins also will lease and manage the property, according to the press release.
"We believe in well-located, high-quality office assets in growing submarkets like Midtown Atlanta, which can be acquired at a basis that allows us to invest in and attract great tenants," Tyler Henritze, the founder and managing partner of Town Lane, said in a press release.
In a LinkedIn post Thursday announcing the deal, Henritze wrote, "The right asset, location, basis and partner. Let’s go Town Lane!!"
Henritze formed Town Lane in January, then in a matter of months raised $1.25B in its inaugural funding round for its Town Lane Real Estate Opportunities Fund I from institutional investors, pension funds, charitable foundations, family offices and university endowments, Bisnow previously reported.
Henritze, who spent 19 years at Blackstone before venturing on his own, previously said the fund would target distressed real estate opportunities caused by ongoing higher interest rates.
The sale comes weeks after Proscenium’s previous owner, an affiliate of Manulife, paid $17M to reduce the balance of a $64.8M JPMorgan Chase loan and extend the maturity date from June 21 to Aug. 20, Bisnow reported, a move that likely gave the landlord extra time to consummate the sale.
The Proscenium is 76.5% leased to tenants, including Acuity Brands, which has 33K SF, BakerHostetler with 32K SF and architectural firm Nelson Worldwide, which occupies 25K SF, according to a CoStar report obtained by Bisnow.
But Nelson recently inked a 7K SF lease at the Star Metals District, Spencer Morris, president of the project’s developer, Allen Morris Co., told Bisnow. It is unclear if Nelson plans to move from the Proscenium to Star Metals or if the deal is an expansion.
BakerHostetler’s lease expires in 2026, and two other leases totaling more than 17K SF expire this year, according to CoStar.
Cousins and Town Lane plan "significant capital upgrades to modernize and reposition the building" in the Midtown office market, according to the press release.
