ATLANTA—How hot is suburban Atlanta metro retail? This deal offers some context. Kennesaw Marketplace, a 288,000-square-foot retail shopping center in Kennesaw, GA, just secured a $78 million acquisition and construction financing loan.

CBRE Capital Markets' Debt & Structured Finance team's Jeffrey Ackemann, Jonathan Rice, and Robert LaChapelle in the Atlanta office arranged the financing. They represented a joint venture between Fuqua Development and Batson-Cook Development. Heitman Real Estate provided the three-year, non-recourse loan.

Located at the intersection of Barrett Parkway and Georgia Highway 41, Kennesaw Marketplace will bring Whole Foods, Academy Sports and a host of other national and local tenants to the area. Construction is expected to commence immediately and will be completed by the third quarter of 2016.

"Whole foods is the most sought after anchor tenant in the Southeast,” Ackemann tells GlobeSt.com. “The combination of Whole Foods and Academy Sports in the booming Atlanta suburb of Kenneesaw a perfect example of best in class tenants finding their way into Atlanta's most desirable residential neighborhoods."

Developers will complete nearly 1.6 million square feet of retail space this year, consisting mostly of pre-leased single-tenant offerings as builders reduce the pace of completions, according to Marcus & Millichap. In the previous year, more than 1.8 million square feet was delivered, the highest pace in several years.

Beyond Midtown and Buckhead, Atlanta's second-ring markets are getting attention and this deal demonstrates that. Josh Goldfarb, co-founder and co-managing partner of Multi Housing Advisors, an Atlanta-based brokerage firm that focuses exclusively on apartment investment sales, shares more about that in an April interview.