NEWS & NOTABLES

ATLANTA—Hotel Equities named Jimmy Grover as regional director of 0perations for the firm. Grover reports to Dominic Buompastore, vice president of operations/full service and resorts. He has oversight of all above property operations for a group of hotels managed by Hotel Equities. With more than 20 years of hospitality industry experience, Grover began his hospitality career as a technician at the Courtyard by Marriott in Norcross, GA. Moving up quickly, he soon earned the post of general manager for the TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Chantilly, VA.

DEAL TRACKER

NASHVILLE—Meridian at Hermitage, a 261-unit, value-add opportunity in Nashville, has traded hands. New York-based Arel Capital, L.P. purchased the property from Spyglass Nashville LLC. This is Arel Capital's first acquisition in the Nashville market. At the time of the sale, the asset was 96% occupied with average rents $926 per month. The CBRE team of Brett Kingman, Russ Oldham and Steve Massey represented the seller. The Hermitage submarket is one of the strongest in the Nashville MSA with historically stout rent growth and steady high occupancy rates for multifamily. The last five years have shown an impressive 36% rent growth, which is the second highest in the MSA just behind neighboring Airport/Briley Parkway.

FAIRBURN, GA—Balfour Beatty Communities has acquired Evergreen Terrace in Fairburn. The multifamily asset consists of 244 units built in 2009. The gated community offers one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartment homes and indoor/outdoor pools, tennis court, bowling alley and playground.

LEESVILLE, LA—The Boulder Group completed the sale of a single tenant new construction Dollar General located at 1382 Pitkin Road in Leesville for $1.084,873 million. The 9,014-square-foot Dollar General building is located along Highway 10, the primary north-south thoroughfare in the trade area. That's in the immediate proximity to Fort Polk, a United States Army installation with over 10,000 soldiers. Randy Blankstein and Jimmy Goodman of Boulder Group represented the seller in the transaction; a local Louisiana based developer. The purchaser was a west-coast private partnership.

ATLANTA—Lincoln Property Company Southeast completed the sale of a 56,600-square-foot office and industrial building in a prime location at 4261 Communications Drive in Norcross. Chip Sipple and Jeff Henson of Lincoln represented the seller, Flooring International Distribution. Young Georgia Properties bought the building for $3.5 million. The previous owner decided to downsize into a space that better fit its operations. The new owner has moved in. “This building offered a superior location in Atlanta's largest industrial market in a great business park setting,” says Sipple. “With a functional floorplan, top-of-the line features and a large warehouse, this Communications Drive building represented a tremendous opportunity for the new owner.”

KNOXVILLE, TN—Continuing to grow its leasing portfolio, Woodmont Company has been retained by Biltmore Property Group to be exclusive leasing representative for Western Plaza, a 200,000-square-foot mixed use complex located at 4315 Kingston Pike in Knoxville and at the Historic Biltmore Village in Asheville, NC. In addition, the Biltmore Property Group will be developing a 16,000-square-foot retail property that includes a second level of exclusive condominiums at 19 Brook Street in Asheville.

ATLANTA—Ashford Hospitality Trust completed the sale of the 495-room Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta for $88.7 million ($179,000 per key). The sales price represents a trailing 12-month cap rate of 5.6% on net operating income and a trailing 15.3x EBITDA multiple. The hotel had an existing allocated debt balance of approximately $65.6 million that was paid off along with an additional $13.1 million of debt pay down used to release the asset from the loan pool. After debt payoff and transaction costs, the net proceeds were approximately $9 million. “The Crowne Plaza Ravinia transaction demonstrates our value-added approach given this was an opportunity for us to sell an asset at a very attractive cap rate,” says Douglas A. Kessler, Ashford Trust's president and CEO. “With a RevPAR that is well below our portfolio average, the sale should improve our overall RevPAR while also freeing up capital that can potentially be recycled into upper upscale, full-service assets or for other general corporate purposes. We will continue to pursue strategies that we believe will enhance returns for our shareholders.”

This week in Atlanta saw Georgia dominating commercial real estate headlines, including a massive hotel sale. Smaller Georgia submarkets are also making headlines.

BY THE NUMBERS

Nearly 39 million people live in apartments, and the apartment industry is quickly exceeding capacity. (Source: National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association)

In the past five years, an average of one million new renter households were formed every year, which is a record amount; and, It will take building an average of at least 325,000 new apartment homes every year to meet demand; yet, on average, just 244,000 apartments were delivered from 2012 through 2016. (Source: National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association)

NEWS & NOTABLES

ATLANTA—Hotel Equities named Jimmy Grover as regional director of 0perations for the firm. Grover reports to Dominic Buompastore, vice president of operations/full service and resorts. He has oversight of all above property operations for a group of hotels managed by Hotel Equities. With more than 20 years of hospitality industry experience, Grover began his hospitality career as a technician at the Courtyard by Marriott in Norcross, GA. Moving up quickly, he soon earned the post of general manager for the TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Chantilly, VA.

DEAL TRACKER

NASHVILLE—Meridian at Hermitage, a 261-unit, value-add opportunity in Nashville, has traded hands. New York-based Arel Capital, L.P. purchased the property from Spyglass Nashville LLC. This is Arel Capital's first acquisition in the Nashville market. At the time of the sale, the asset was 96% occupied with average rents $926 per month. The CBRE team of Brett Kingman, Russ Oldham and Steve Massey represented the seller. The Hermitage submarket is one of the strongest in the Nashville MSA with historically stout rent growth and steady high occupancy rates for multifamily. The last five years have shown an impressive 36% rent growth, which is the second highest in the MSA just behind neighboring Airport/Briley Parkway.

FAIRBURN, GA—Balfour Beatty Communities has acquired Evergreen Terrace in Fairburn. The multifamily asset consists of 244 units built in 2009. The gated community offers one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartment homes and indoor/outdoor pools, tennis court, bowling alley and playground.

LEESVILLE, LA—The Boulder Group completed the sale of a single tenant new construction Dollar General located at 1382 Pitkin Road in Leesville for $1.084,873 million. The 9,014-square-foot Dollar General building is located along Highway 10, the primary north-south thoroughfare in the trade area. That's in the immediate proximity to Fort Polk, a United States Army installation with over 10,000 soldiers. Randy Blankstein and Jimmy Goodman of Boulder Group represented the seller in the transaction; a local Louisiana based developer. The purchaser was a west-coast private partnership.

ATLANTA—Lincoln Property Company Southeast completed the sale of a 56,600-square-foot office and industrial building in a prime location at 4261 Communications Drive in Norcross. Chip Sipple and Jeff Henson of Lincoln represented the seller, Flooring International Distribution. Young Georgia Properties bought the building for $3.5 million. The previous owner decided to downsize into a space that better fit its operations. The new owner has moved in. “This building offered a superior location in Atlanta's largest industrial market in a great business park setting,” says Sipple. “With a functional floorplan, top-of-the line features and a large warehouse, this Communications Drive building represented a tremendous opportunity for the new owner.”

KNOXVILLE, TN—Continuing to grow its leasing portfolio, Woodmont Company has been retained by Biltmore Property Group to be exclusive leasing representative for Western Plaza, a 200,000-square-foot mixed use complex located at 4315 Kingston Pike in Knoxville and at the Historic Biltmore Village in Asheville, NC. In addition, the Biltmore Property Group will be developing a 16,000-square-foot retail property that includes a second level of exclusive condominiums at 19 Brook Street in Asheville.

ATLANTA—Ashford Hospitality Trust completed the sale of the 495-room Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta for $88.7 million ($179,000 per key). The sales price represents a trailing 12-month cap rate of 5.6% on net operating income and a trailing 15.3x EBITDA multiple. The hotel had an existing allocated debt balance of approximately $65.6 million that was paid off along with an additional $13.1 million of debt pay down used to release the asset from the loan pool. After debt payoff and transaction costs, the net proceeds were approximately $9 million. “The Crowne Plaza Ravinia transaction demonstrates our value-added approach given this was an opportunity for us to sell an asset at a very attractive cap rate,” says Douglas A. Kessler, Ashford Trust's president and CEO. “With a RevPAR that is well below our portfolio average, the sale should improve our overall RevPAR while also freeing up capital that can potentially be recycled into upper upscale, full-service assets or for other general corporate purposes. We will continue to pursue strategies that we believe will enhance returns for our shareholders.”