ATLANTA- Porsche Cars North America will build its new US headquarters at Jacoby Development’s Aerotropolis Atlanta. The 175,000-square-foot build-to suit transaction is valued at about $100 million.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Ken Ashley, Sam Hollis, Betty McIntosh, Margo McConnell, and Sarah Momberg represented Porsche in its real estate site search and related negotiations. Porsche Cars North America president and CEO Detlev von Platen announced the deal Thursday morning at a press conference.
“Over the course of a year, Porsche evaluated more than 70 options in multiple states for its new headquarters,” says Ashley, a senior director based in Cushman & Wakefield’s Atlanta offices. “From the beginning, Porsche brought a unique vision of what it desired in a headquarters location. It required a home that would embody its iconic brand and stand the test of time as the company continues its success in the coming decades. Ultimately, Aerotropolis Atlanta was the location with the flexibility to accommodate this vision.”
Porsche’s new headquarters is expected to open in 2013, and will be home to about 400 employees. The new facility combines Porsche Cars North America’s core business units under one roof for the first time and brings key out-of-state executives to Atlanta. Built on nearly 27 acres, the building will feature an environmentally friendly design, with plans to pursue LEED Gold Certification.
Despite the big win for Atlanta, Hollis says the Porsche deal is unique to the recovering market. With a lease expiring in 2013, the timing was right for Porsche to execute on a vision to build its own facility, complete with corporate offices, technical services, conference facilities, and the Porsche Experience Center, a handling circuit and off-road course for product demonstration and advanced driver training. The Experience Center will be the first of its kind in the US.
“We are not seeing new development yet in Atlanta, but things are turning and clients are expanding,” says Hollis, a broker at Cushman & Wakefield. “We are seeing a lot of activity, small and large, around the market. That’s a good sign separate and apart from Porsche. If you take Buckhead out of the statistics, the market is really in pretty good shape.”
Porsche is the first major company to sign on at Aerotropolis Atlanta. The redevelopment project includes successfully recycling 95 percent of an existing automotive manufacturing structure on the 130-acre site, which is adjacent to the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and will serve as an entrance to its new International Terminal.
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