PSI Group, a subsidiary of Stamford, CT-based Pitney Bowes, is taking 66,254 sf at an estimated aggregate rent of $1.7 million at Airport West. Mohawk Industries, the Calhoun, GA-based carpet manufacturer, is leasing 50,669 sf at an estimated total rent of $1.3 million in Gwinnett County.
Nancy Musselwhite at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Charles Stallingworth at Georgia Power assisted Lincoln in recruiting PSI to Airport West which is at South Fulton Parkway and Buffington Road. Julian Brown, a Lincoln senior vice president, and Lincoln leasing representative Denton Shamburger represented Lincoln in the transaction.
PSI plans to occupy the building in December. This will be PSI's first distribution center in Georgia. In the Gwinnett County lease, Brown and Shamburger represented Lincoln. Rodger West of Alliance Partners negotiated for Mohawk.
The leasing deals tie in with an earlier industrial real estate market forecast by Bullock Mannelly Partners Inc., a locally based brokerage. Bullock Mannelly principal Michael A. Crawford predicted metro area businesses may be creating 40,000 new jobs in 2004 in the industrial sector which would help the leasing end of this struggling market.
"Despite increases in vacancy rates, the belief that warehouse markets will lead the upcoming real estate recovery has kept many investors looking for opportunities in this property sector," Crawford says. The warehouse category is faring the worst with vacancies of 14.8%.
Atlanta's industrial market "continues to be negatively impacted by the sluggish economy," Crawford says. "While some economic signs point to greater stability during the second half of the year, the lack of tenant demand continued to stall a potential recovery in the industrial sector" in 2003.
Warehouses represent 67% of the industrial market's total 480 million sf. On the investment sales side, Crawford sees no great rush to buying, even as prices decline slightly. "Investors will continue to take advantage of opportunities fueled by market weakness and low interest rates," he says.
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