DALLAS-It's important in business to recognize your weaknesses and find people or companies to make up for the shortfall. Macfarlan Capital Partners put that rule into practice when it became involved last year in the marketing of a two-building campus here—spanning 794,110 square feet—that was leased to AT&T.
With five-years remaining on AT&T's agreement, Macfarlan was interested in buying the property. It called in the experts in the net lease space, Cole Real Estate Investments. “We approached Cole,” says Macfarlan partnerand general counsel Bryan Larson, “because we tend to be more on the opportunistic spectrum, buying higher risk with greater upside, whereas Cole is a triple net buyer and we felt this type of trophy asset in an ascending market was a perfect fit for Cole.”
He continues, “A lot of the assets we've bought in Atlanta are multi-tenant properties, so they're constantly turning over, whereas Cole's strategy and their rigorous criteria means they're long-term tenants with quality credit.”
As previously reported Macfarlan and Cole formed a joint venture and purchased the property for $225 million, it was announced on Monday. Macfarlanwas able to get AT&T to extend its tenancy in theproject for 11 more years. The campus sits on 7.22 acres and was originally a build-to-suit for AT&T in 2001 and 2002. Located in the Midtown area, the Midtown I office tower totals 512,101 square feet and the mid-rise Midtown II is 282,009 square feet.
Macfarlan ultimately had a simple reason for making the buy. “Yields are significantly higher than AT&T bonds,” Larson says.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
