ATLANTA—Brandon Houston has joined Trammell Crow Company's Atlanta Business Unit as Principal responsible for sourcing and executing new office development and investment opportunities throughout the Greater Atlanta region. Brandon is transferring from TCC's Houston office, where he served in the same role. Houston will report to Mark Dishaw, head of TCC's Atlanta office. Brandon joined TCC's Houston office in 2012. With more than 12 years of commercial real estate experience, he has negotiated over 2 million square feet of commercial leases and been involved in development projects valued at over $900 million. Prior to TCC, he served as a vice president with JP Morgan, focusing on commercial investment strategies for high net worth individuals and as a Director of Development with Midway Companies in Houston, overseeing site selection and development for over 1 million square feet of office and industrial projects in the Houston area.

DEAL TRACKER

ATLANTA—Newmarket Business Park, a six-building office complex in Marietta, GA, has traded hands. A joint venture led by Praelium Commercial Real Estate, a Southern California-based commercial real estate investment company, and South Street Partners, a Charlotte, NC-based real estate private equity investment firm, acquired the office assets. The 85% occupied commercial real estate property is located between Cobb Parkway and Franklin Gateway, northwest of greater Atlanta. Home Depot USA occupies 66% of the property, which spans 471,486 square feet.

ATLANTA—Ashford Hospitality Trust, a REIT focused on opportunistic investments in upscale, full-service hotels, sold the 495-room Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta. The sale price is $88.7 million, or $179,000 per key. The price represents a trailing 12-month cap rate of 5.6% on net operating income and a trailing 15.3x EBITDA multiple. Based upon the prior 12-month period, the Crowne Plaza achieved RevPAR of $84 with occupancy of 71% and Average Daily Rate of $119.

ATLANTA—Strategies sold City Walk, a mixed-use development in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn Avenue Historic District, to two separate investors. Located at 171 Auburn Avenue Northeast and spanning an entire city block, the six-story brick-clad City Walk features 144 one- and two-bedroom multifamily units over 30,500 square feet of street level retail. The retail component, which is leased to a mix of national and local merchants including Pizza Hut, Sweet Auburn Seafood and Moe's Southern Grill, was sold to a joint venture of Franklin Road Amoco, Inc. & Southern Gas Partners. The Atlanta-based Cushman & Wakefield team of Mike Kemether, Josh Goldfarb and Travis Presnell represented all parties to the transactions.

ATLANTA—Carroll Organization acquired Peninsula at Buckhead. The property will be held by Carroll Multifamily Real Estate Fund IV, LP. and managed by Carroll Management Group. Peninsula at Buckhead is a 311-unit mid-rise property built in 2008 which includes 10,000 square feet of ground-level retail space. Carroll has now purchased 24 properties totaling over $1.3 billion since the beginning of 2016 and is continuing to actively purchase high-quality multifamily communities in the Southeast and Southwest, and other strategic target markets across the country.

BUILDING BLOCKS

BATON ROUGE, LA—Southern Business & Development magazine ranked Louisiana number one for the ninth consecutive year as the Southern state claiming the most economic development project wins per capita. The magazine tracked the most significant capital-investment and job-creation projects across the South, with states earning points for large employment projects (200 or more jobs) and large capital-investment projects ($30 million or more) attracted during 2016. Louisiana led the region with the most points-per-million people at 84.4, outperforming second-place South Carolina (80.6) and third-place Alabama (65.8). Neither Louisiana nor Texas, the overall points leader, earned the 2017 State of the Year designation, which the publication awarded to South Carolina, based upon an analysis of that state's 66 project wins in 2016. Louisiana, with 57 project wins, earned one of three Honorable Mention awards for State of the Year, along with Alabama (52 projects) and Kentucky (39 projects).

Early this week in the Southeast saw Atlanta dominate news headlines. Office complexes, opportunistic investments and significant accolades were handed out across the region.

BY THE NUMBERS

Atlanta was the number three large market (by percent change) for tech labor growth. With a growth rate of 47.6% from 2011 to 2016, it fell behind only Raleigh-Durham (51.3%) and the San Francisco Bay Area (49.9%). (Source: CBRE)

NEWS & NOTABLES

ATLANTA—Brandon Houston has joined Trammell Crow Company's Atlanta Business Unit as Principal responsible for sourcing and executing new office development and investment opportunities throughout the Greater Atlanta region. Brandon is transferring from TCC's Houston office, where he served in the same role. Houston will report to Mark Dishaw, head of TCC's Atlanta office. Brandon joined TCC's Houston office in 2012. With more than 12 years of commercial real estate experience, he has negotiated over 2 million square feet of commercial leases and been involved in development projects valued at over $900 million. Prior to TCC, he served as a vice president with JP Morgan, focusing on commercial investment strategies for high net worth individuals and as a Director of Development with Midway Companies in Houston, overseeing site selection and development for over 1 million square feet of office and industrial projects in the Houston area.

DEAL TRACKER

ATLANTA—Newmarket Business Park, a six-building office complex in Marietta, GA, has traded hands. A joint venture led by Praelium Commercial Real Estate, a Southern California-based commercial real estate investment company, and South Street Partners, a Charlotte, NC-based real estate private equity investment firm, acquired the office assets. The 85% occupied commercial real estate property is located between Cobb Parkway and Franklin Gateway, northwest of greater Atlanta. Home Depot USA occupies 66% of the property, which spans 471,486 square feet.

ATLANTA—Ashford Hospitality Trust, a REIT focused on opportunistic investments in upscale, full-service hotels, sold the 495-room Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta. The sale price is $88.7 million, or $179,000 per key. The price represents a trailing 12-month cap rate of 5.6% on net operating income and a trailing 15.3x EBITDA multiple. Based upon the prior 12-month period, the Crowne Plaza achieved RevPAR of $84 with occupancy of 71% and Average Daily Rate of $119.

ATLANTA—Strategies sold City Walk, a mixed-use development in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn Avenue Historic District, to two separate investors. Located at 171 Auburn Avenue Northeast and spanning an entire city block, the six-story brick-clad City Walk features 144 one- and two-bedroom multifamily units over 30,500 square feet of street level retail. The retail component, which is leased to a mix of national and local merchants including Pizza Hut, Sweet Auburn Seafood and Moe's Southern Grill, was sold to a joint venture of Franklin Road Amoco, Inc. & Southern Gas Partners. The Atlanta-based Cushman & Wakefield team of Mike Kemether, Josh Goldfarb and Travis Presnell represented all parties to the transactions.

ATLANTA—Carroll Organization acquired Peninsula at Buckhead. The property will be held by Carroll Multifamily Real Estate Fund IV, LP. and managed by Carroll Management Group. Peninsula at Buckhead is a 311-unit mid-rise property built in 2008 which includes 10,000 square feet of ground-level retail space. Carroll has now purchased 24 properties totaling over $1.3 billion since the beginning of 2016 and is continuing to actively purchase high-quality multifamily communities in the Southeast and Southwest, and other strategic target markets across the country.

BUILDING BLOCKS

BATON ROUGE, LA—Southern Business & Development magazine ranked Louisiana number one for the ninth consecutive year as the Southern state claiming the most economic development project wins per capita. The magazine tracked the most significant capital-investment and job-creation projects across the South, with states earning points for large employment projects (200 or more jobs) and large capital-investment projects ($30 million or more) attracted during 2016. Louisiana led the region with the most points-per-million people at 84.4, outperforming second-place South Carolina (80.6) and third-place Alabama (65.8). Neither Louisiana nor Texas, the overall points leader, earned the 2017 State of the Year designation, which the publication awarded to South Carolina, based upon an analysis of that state's 66 project wins in 2016. Louisiana, with 57 project wins, earned one of three Honorable Mention awards for State of the Year, along with Alabama (52 projects) and Kentucky (39 projects).