Midtown Atlanta Trophy Asset Trades Hands

Midtown Atlanta

ATLANTA—Pershing Park Plaza, a nine-story class A office building in Midtown Atlanta, has traded hands. The sale price: $45 million Located at 1420 Peachtree Street, Northeast, Pershing Park Plaza offers about 160,000 rentable square feet of office space . Franklin Street Properties Corp. acquired the asset for about $284 per rentable square foot. This is Franklin’s second investment in Midtown. “We believe that the acquisition of Pershing Park Plaza will provide additional opportunities for value creation by growing our Midtown presence in Atlanta to over 780,000 rentable square feet, when combined with 999 Peachtree Street,” says George J. Carter , chairman and CEO of Franklin Street Properties. “Pershing Park Plaza is a trophy quality office property in a premier location that provides world-class companies with walkable access to many of the finest cultural attractions and amenities that Atlanta has to offer, as well as to MARTA light rail.” Franklin Street plans to invest about $1.8 million in building capital investments, excluding leasing costs. Pershing Park Plaza is 97% leased to three tenants, the largest being the international law firm of Jones Day. The firm takes leases about 88% of the rentable square footage. With record asking rates, Atlanta’s office market still showed strong momentum in the second quarter of 2016. That’s according to Cushman & Wakefield ‘s mid-year 2016 statistics. Atlanta landlords enjoyed strong overall occupancy at 16%. That represents a 1.2 percentage point decrease in year-over-year vacancy—and the lowest vacancy rate the office market has seen since the third quarter of 2008. Overall average asking rental rates in Atlanta set a new record in the second quarter, ending at $23.07 per square foot. That marks the first time the market has seen an overall asking rent over $23.00 per square foot. “We have experienced significant rental rate growth in all submarkets across our portfolio,” Glenn Kolker , a senior managing director with CushWake’s Agency Leasing group, tells GlobeSt.com. “And, with activity continuing at even a moderate pace, this trend will continue for the foreseeable future as lenders continue to tighten the reins on any new spec development.” Midtown Atlanta is certainly booming—and it’s not just office . Tenside Apartments, a 336-unit multifamily community in Atlanta, has traded hands. Carroll Organization acquired the asset as part of its newest investment vehicle, Carroll Multifamily Real Estate Fund IV, for $74 million. And in June, a tired vacant building in Midtown was promised a new lease on life .