Major Assets Flip in Bull Investment Market

ATLANTA-Taking advantage of intense institutional investment interest in class A office properties, Cousins Properties Inc. has placed several major assets on the selling block. Leading the list is the 2.5-million-sf, eight-building, 285-acre Wildwood Office Park, just north of Atlanta in Cobb County. Also on the market are two Northside Hospital buildings in suburban Alpharetta, GA and a 20-story office building in Charlotte, NC.In a first-quarter report to shareholders, Cousins president and CEO Tom Bell, said other properties may also be sold shortly. Cousins has already contracted to sell two suburban Washington, DC office buildings for more than $300 per sf. “If this rare pricing environment holds, there’s a good possibility that we will reach agreements to sell several other office assets this year, capturing the value we have created in those developments,” Bell said. “We are currently marketing several office properties for sale and evaluating the potential sale of others.”In Wildwood Office Park, a new owner will inherit a blue-ribbon tenant roll that includes Coca-Cola Co., GE Energy, Georgia-Pacific, IBM and Cousins itself. The 12-year-old, 687,000-sf, 16-story Wildwood Plaza building at 3200 Windy Hill Rd., is the park’s flagship structure.In the largest office deal of the year in 2003, locally based Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. signed an estimated 10-year lease for a total 214,000 sf at Wildwood Plaza. Brokers told GlobeSt.com at the time the deal had an estimated aggregate value of $45 million.Downtown office brokers following recent class A property sales tell GlobeSt.com Wildwood Office Park could generate a record price of about $250 to $275 per sf. They cite the two biggest building sales of 2003, both sold in December. Koger Equity Inc. of Boca Raton, FL paid Atlanta-based Pope and Land Enterprises $116.5 million or $232 per sf for the 502,000-sf, 23-story, 86%-leased Atlantic Center Plaza at 14th and West Peachtree Streets in Midtown.Right behind the Koger deal in size was the sale by Trammell Crow Co. and Real Estate Capital Partners of their jointly owned 23-story, 527,000-sf, 80%-leased Proscenium office building at 1170 Peachtree St. The $118 million price equates to $224 per sf. GlobeSt.com previously reported both transactions.