Barry Buys Three-Acre Downtown Site for $6M

ATLANTA-Locally based Barry Cos. has tied up the major loose ends on a planned $50-million, 14-story, 260,000-sf office structure on which the developer plans to build beginning in fall 2005. Barry has closed on the $6-million purchase of three prime Downtown acres about four blocks from the 100-acre Centennial Olympic Park master-planned development area.

Barry paid Los Angeles-based TCW Land Fund I $2 million per acre, or $47 per sf, in the largest area land deal closed so far this year. The developer already has signed locally based Southern Co. to a 12-year, 130,000-sf lease at an estimated aggregate effective rent of $31.2 million, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

The three-acre sale to Barry completes the total 6.7-acre disposition by TCW on the Peachtree Portal tract near the Civic Center MARTA station. The Novare Group, headed by Jim Borders, purchased a 3.8-acre site on the three-block tract in September for $8.2 million, or approximately $2.2 million an acre and about $50 per sf. That sale was the second largest land deal Downtown in 2003. Novare plans to develop 1,100 apartment units in two towers on its 3.8-acre site.