Category: Office

As Ackerman & Co. steadily strengthens its services platform and adds talent to its brokerage group, the firm continues to solidify its position as a leading commercial real estate firm in the Southeast.

One way to measure a firm’s success is by the number of its brokers who are named to the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors (ACBR) Million Dollar Club. A total of 11 Ackerman brokers were named to the Million Dollar Club at the recent 2020 ACBR awards.

“This is the most brokers we’ve ever had named to the Million Dollar Club,” said Kris Miller. “Our brokerage team is producing great results for our clients and we’ll continue building our team and the quality of our services to keep those results coming.”

The Ackerman brokers added to the 2020 Million Dollar Club include Courtney Brumbelow, Brett Buckner, Bryan Davis, Brian Lefkoff, Chris Miller, Kris Redding, Sean Patrick, John Speros, Jimmy Stevens, Kelly Wilson and Larry Wood.

Three of Ackerman’s 2020 Million Dollar Club members took home Top 10 Broker honors – Brian Lefkoff (the No. 5 Retail Broker), Courtney Brumbelow (the No. 8 Retail Broker) and John Speros (the No. 5 Land Broker).

As leader of Ackerman Retail’s Tenant Representation Group, Brian’s major deals included a 30,000-square-foot lease on behalf of Painted Tree Marketplace in Buford, Ga., which marked the retailer’s first store in Georgia, while Courtney completed nearly 100 real estate transactions as the head of the Landlord Representation Group.

A long-time high producer for Ackerman as Senior Vice President of the Land Group, John’s biggest transaction was the $18 million, 65-acre land sale for the Exchange at Gwinnett mixed-use project, which he brokered with Senior Vice President Larry Wood. The project, also named one of the three finalists for ACBR’s 2020 Alvin B. Cates Award, will feature Top Golf, Andretti Indoor Karting & Games, Rooms To Go and more.

The Million Dollar Club recognizes brokers with production of $5 million or more in annual commercial transactions.

Don’t sleep on South Metro Atlanta.

That was the message from speakers at the 2020 South Metro Development Outlook conference recently held at the Georgia International Convention Center. The conference, now in its 18th year, gathers commercial real estate professionals, business leaders and elected officials to discuss the latest economic development trends in the region.

South Metro communities have tended to lag behind Atlanta’s bustling submarkets to the north like Midtown, Buckhead, Central Perimeter, Alpharetta and Cumberland-Galleria, which have become some of the most prominent business hubs in the Southeast. But the South Metro – a six-county area south of I-20 – is increasingly attracting the interest of investors, including regional, national and international players.

Ackerman & Co. is one of those investors bullish on South Metro. The company, with partner MDH Partners, purchased the 423,000-square-foot Lee + White project in the West End area just south of I-20 and is currently diversifying the popular entertainment and food & beverage destination to include loft offices, retail and a food hall.

In addition to Lee + White, Ackerman is involved in the $1-billion Airport City project in College Park as the exclusive land broker marketing the 320-acre property adjacent to the airport for a mix of office, hotel, retail, entertainment, residential and other uses.

“The time is right for this type of mixed-use development in South Atlanta. This area has traditionally been underserved by retail in particular, but the opportunity to serve the local community as well as the millions of Hartsfield-Jackson passengers who visit annually makes it ideal for the local, national and international end users we’re seeking to attract,” said Steve Langford, Ackerman & Co. Senior Vice President and land broker for Airport City.

Investing in Future Growth
The South Metro region is home to the biggest economic driver in the state – Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which serves 100 million passengers a year, employs 63,000 on-site workers and generates a $34.8-billion annual economic impact.

Speakers pointed to a number of trends and developments that position the region to attract economic development while leveraging its strategic location at the gateway to the world’s busiest airport.

South Atlanta is the largest industrial submarket in metro Atlanta, with a total of 196 million square feet of warehouse and manufacturing space. It is also home to global headquarters such as Delta International and Chick-fil-A. More recently, South Metro attracted the relocation of Porsche Cars North America headquarters from Sandy Springs, a $100-million project that includes the Experience Center race track.

The region is preparing for much more success. Aerotropolis Atlanta, a public-private partnership representing 13 South Atlanta communities, aims to create the region’s next premier business district. Aerotropolis is working with other agencies on a variety of infrastructure improvements, including a $13-million diverging diamond interchange at Camp Creek Parkway and I-285 designed to improve traffic flows around the Airport.

“We don’t want to duplicate the traffic congestion of other parts of the metro,” said Gerald McDowell, executive director of the Aerotropolis Atlanta CID.

Another project being proposed is a “pod car” network that would provide speedy connections to Airport terminals and nearby destinations such as the Porsche and Delta headquarters via dedicated cars holding up to eight passengers. This project would cost roughly $15 million per mile, McDowell said, which is far less than other public transportation initiatives.

“We have been denied transportation solutions because we’ve been told it’s not affordable,” he said. “This is affordable, and we believe this is a solution that could provide an example of how to expand throughout the region.”

Adding Amenities to Attract Talent & Businesses
The film industry has a growing presence in the South Metro region, and it’s generating some exciting spin-off development. Pinewood Forest, a 235-acre mega project near Pinewood Atlanta Studios, will ultimately feature 700 homes, 600 apartments, 300 hotel rooms, and 270,000 square feet of commercial space with restaurants, retail and a 9-screen theater featuring a rooftop cinema.

“This type of development is setting the stage for attracting talent, and the companies that employ them will follow,” said Joan Young, president of the Fayette County Development Authority.

Christopher Pike, economic development director for the City of South Fulton, discussed two major projects planned in the newly formed city, including a town center mixed-use development and a 200-acre riverfront district.

“These are quality of life projects that will bring a different flavor to South Fulton,” Pike said.

In addition to new amenities that will help the South Metro better compete with northern communities, the region has another major selling point – its lower development costs.

Shannon James, president and CEO of the Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance, said the relatively low cost of land – which includes 50,000 acres of undeveloped land around Hartsfield-Jackson – impressed his colleagues from Beijing, China’s, Aerotropolis.

“They salivated over the opportunities here compared to the cost in their neck of the woods,” he said

Brokers are vital to the success of every full-service real estate company, and Ackerman & Co. is fortunate to have a talented, diverse team ranging from young associate brokers to veterans with 40-plus years of experience.

At the close of every year, Ackerman & Co. recognizes brokers on both ends of that spectrum with its Broker Awards.

We’re excited to announce that John Speros is the recipient of our Broker of the Year Award and Kris Redding is our Young Broker of the Year.

Another Stand-Out Year for Veteran Broker

One of Ackerman’s most experienced and high-producing brokers, John Speros has been with the firm since 2009. He has expertise in virtually every type of commercial real estate transaction, from the sale of land parcels for single-family, multifamily and mixed-use developments to the disposition of portfolios and the acquisition of sites for commercial and residential development. His current focus is the representation of owners in land sales as leader of the Ackerman/Pioneer Land Group with Kyle Gable.

This past year has been one of John’s most productive, which is saying a lot for someone who has received multiple high-profile Atlanta market awards throughout his career – including recognition as the second-highest producing commercial land broker in 2010 and receiving the Alvin B. Cates Award for the most significant commercial real estate transaction in 2003 and 2007.

In 2019, John completed land transactions totaling nearly $75 million. Some of his biggest transactions include the $7.3-million sale of 35 acres in Gwinnett County that will become the site of the 330-unit Alta Sugarloaf multifamily complex and the $8.9-million sale of 152 acres in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., that will be used to expand a public park.

“We’re very fortunate to have someone with John’s experience and ability. He has been a key member of our team for years, and it’s great to see him have another hugely successful year,” said Kris Miller.

What stands out most about John to Kyle Gable is his combination of commercial real estate expertise and his willingness to serve as a mentor to younger brokers.

“I think there are two main qualities that make John so good in the land business. The first is his overall knowledge of all the different types of land transactions – he brings an array of knowledge to the table that most brokers just don’t have,” Gable said. “Second is his ability to get a deal closed. John understands the complexity of real estate and how to get the deal across the goal line.”

Kyle himself has benefited from John’s generosity in sharing his expertise. “When I was a 26-year-old with limited land experience, John took me under his wing and showed me how to work on land transactions and ultimately get them closed. In working with him over the past 10 years, I have seen him spend time with many young brokers teaching them about real estate,” he said.

Young Broker Hitting His Stride

A former NFL and Canadian Football League player, Kris Redding began his real estate career during the 2015 off season and now represents clients in both lease and sales transactions. Since joining Ackerman in 2017, he has demonstrated an ability to grow client relationships and become a valued partner in helping them achieve their business goals.

“It’s an honor to receive this award.” said Redding. “Ackerman’s prestige, tenured relationships within the industry, prolific resources and internal support system have provided me with a platform that has galvanized my ability to be productive in our business.” This productivity earned him a place in the NAIOP Million Dollar Club for completing more than $4 million in office leases in 2018.

Kris’s major deals in 2019 include representing Academy Orthopedics in the $5.26 million sale of its North Atlanta medical office portfolio. He also completed three lease transactions concurrently at Phoenix Business Campus with Worker’s United Southern Region, Primerica and Good Ground Development Center in five-year leases totaling 18,314 square feet.

“Kris brings the same hard-working and tenacious work ethic to real estate brokerage as he did to football. We look forward to seeing him continue his growth in commercial real estate as an important part of our brokerage team,” said Miller.

Read more about our brokerage group here: https://www.ackermanco.com/real-estate-services/overview/

Lee + White has become a hip entertainment and nightlife hub in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta, offering breweries, restaurants, food manufacturers and unique retailers.

In purchasing the property with MDH Partners, Ackerman & Co. plans to expand the project’s appeal by diversifying development to include a food hall, loft offices and additional retail.

Initially constructed as industrial buildings in the 1950s and 1960s, the property was recently redeveloped by prior owner Stream Realty Partners. “We’ll be investing significant capital to continue the development of this site,” noted Ackerman & Co. Brokerage President Keene Miller.

Tenants are united by their strong attachment to the West End community and their pride in being a part of a pioneering intown Atlanta development.

Ackerman & Co. is equally committed to becoming a part of the community and plans to hold public hearings to get input on its development plans.

While Lee + White has some similarities to other notable adaptive reuse projects in Atlanta, Ackerman Retail President Leo Wiener pointed out some key differences in an interview with Bisnow.

“This is not Ponce City [Market]. We’re not going after corporate,” he said. “We just think it’s a little more edgy and gritty with the feel. We want to stay true to the neighborhood.” Like Ponce City Market, Lee + White benefits from its location steps away from the Atlanta BeltLine.

Current tenants include Monday Night Brewing, Wild Heaven Beer, Best End Brewing Co., ASW Whiskey Exchange, Hop City Craft Beer & Wine, Plywood People, Honeysuckle Gelato, Cultured South Fermentation Co., Doux South Pickles, Boxcar restaurant, Overlook Boulder + Fitness, MacStadium, and United Way of Greater Atlanta.

“Lee + White is an exciting investment for us,” said Ackerman President Kris Miller. “Stream showed vision in transforming these properties into a popular entertainment and food and beverage destination. There’s an excellent value-add opportunity for us to diversify with additional development.”

Leo Wiener and Retail Senior Vice President Kelly Wilson will lead the restaurant and retail leasing efforts at the property. Porter Henritze and Sonia Winfield, directors at Cushman & Wakefield, will represent ownership in office leasing.

We’ll be providing updates on the development plans, so be sure to visit our blog and the Lee + White Instagram page for the latest!

This year’s Deloitte’s Commercial Real Estate Outlook Report focuses on how technology and changing tenant and investor expectations are ramping up competition and creating shifts in how products are sold or leased.

With these shifts, what can CRE Companies do to stay competitive and ensure they capture the rapidly growing demand?

Out-of-the-Box Properties and Business Plans – The report states that this year investors plan to increase their focus on mixed-use properties, nontraditional products and retail developments. Flexible leases and business spaces are also going to be an attractive investment.

Adaptability – Investors will be looking for the companies that can quickly respond to the rapidly changing waters of the CRE business world, whether it be with new business models or by adopting “a variety of technologies to make buildings future-ready.”

Tech-savvy presence – To attract potential investors, companies need to be able to stay shoulder to shoulder with technology and present technological agility in the way they market their properties and in their business plans.

Catering to investor and tenant needs should move CRE companies to have a different perspective on the way they do business. By increasing mixed-use, nontraditional and retail products in their portfolios, becoming more adaptable to the changes in the industry and using technological advancements in their favor, CRE companies can change with the industry and be ready for the future to come.

As summer arrives, so does a new group of interns at Ackerman!

We recently sat down with our interns to discuss how they plan on applying their newly gained experience in the future.

“I’m very excited to be here,” said Emma Lonergan, who is working in the Marketing & Communications department. She is an incoming junior at Georgia College and State University. “I’m learning so much I can apply to my college classes and later in my career.”

Projects she’s working on with Fara Wilson and the marketing team include updating the organization of the promotional items inventory, which she will track and monitor throughout the summer. She’s also working on editorial assignments, including blog writing.

Also joining Ackerman’s Marketing team for the summer is Ellis Snell, who will be assisting in the department’s day-to-day activities and select projects. Ellis is headed to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) as a freshman this fall.

Harrison Bernhardt, an intern with the Brokerage team, tells us he looks forward to applying everything he learns this summer to his future dream job in commercial real estate. An incoming senior at the University of Georgia, he’s learning a lot from the brokers he’s working with, including how to knock on doors to canvas potential clients.

“I realized that real estate was a better fit for me than finance, my original major in college, because I enjoy working in the field and meeting people face-to-face,” he said.

Also spending the summer interning for the Brokerage group are Bart Kauffman (an incoming senior at Furman University) and Connor Barry (an incoming sophomore at the University of Southern California).

All three Brokerage interns are gaining valuable experience learning commercial real estate research programs as they help our brokers in their ongoing lease and sales efforts. That includes using CoStar, LandVision and other research tools to summarize market trends, prepare lease comparables and access various details on individual properties and owners.

Bart, Connor and Harrison are also getting a first-hand look at the types of projects Ackerman develops. They recently attended a BBQ event and tour at Rockdale Technology Center, the firm’s newest Class A industrial park. Connor and Harrison were responsible for transporting our brokerage guests across the park, and they assisted the Marketing team in setting up and closing down the event.

Alex Barnes (not pictured), an incoming junior at Georgia College and State University, is one of the interns supporting the HR department this summer.

He recently attended the company’s open enrollment benefits session, where he learned about the different healthcare and benefit options available to employees.

“This was incredibly eye-opening,” Alex said. “I was unaware of all the complexities involved in selecting healthcare coverage and the wide-ranging costs.” He’ll be able to call on this knowledge when he enters the workforce and goes through the process of selecting his own insurance.

It’s great to have these bright-eyed and bushy-tailed interns on board with us this summer. We have every confidence they’ll succeed in their future careers!

If you’re the owner-occupant of commercial real estate, have you considered the potential benefits of a sale-leaseback?

A sale-leaseback is when you sell your real estate asset and then lease it back long-term from the buyer. This can be an effective strategy to unlock the value of your real estate, allowing you to draw on the proceeds of the sale.

Let’s look at some of the key ways you can use a sale-leaseback to your business’s advantage:

Produce cash for your operations
Selling your asset in a sale-leaseback transaction allows you to regain access to capital that was previously tied up in your ownership of the building while still operating uninterrupted in the same location.

Then you can use the cash generated from the sale for a variety of purposes: to grow your business, pursue new opportunities, address operational issues, among others.

Gain access to an alternative financing tool
As an alternative financing option, a sale-leaseback offers a nice perk compared to conventional financing – it provides the seller more cash. In a sale-leaseback, you would typically receive 100% of the property’s value compared to 70 percent to 80 percent in conventional mortgage financing.

Another perk is the ability to avoid the burdensome provisions associated with traditional financing, including balloon payments, call provisions and refinancing.

Improve your balance sheet & boost your borrowing capacity
A sale-leaseback removes the asset from your balance sheet, converting a fixed asset into cash proceeds from the sale. In removing this liability from your balance sheet, your loan-to-value ratio is reduced, improving your credit standing and making it easier to borrow additional funds in the future.

Transfer ownership risks to the buyer
Upon completion of the sale-leaseback, the responsibilities of ownership are transferred to the buyer, including the risks of depreciation and obsolescence. Eliminating these and other real estate ownership obligations allows you to direct your attention and financial resources to what matters most – your business operations.

As an owner-operator, a sale-leaseback is a viable option for increasing your financial flexibility and liquidity. Since sale-leasebacks are complicated transactions, it’s crucial to rely on an experienced commercial real estate professional to guide you through the process.

Interested in learning more about sale-leasebacks? Contact us at 770-913-3900.

In a concerted effort to foster diversity within their organizations, many real estate companies are becoming more proactive in recruiting people of color.

To that end, commercial real estate firms are sourcing talent from a broader group of colleges and universities and providing a variety of career development resources.

While the industry is making strides, diversity levels among senior executives could use some improvement. According to NAIOP, white men comprise 78 percent of senior executives and white women make up the next largest segment (14 percent), while black women and black men each comprise 1 percent of the total.

With more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, Fara Wilson, vice president of Marketing and Communications at Ackerman & Co., is familiar with both the challenges and rewards of working as a black woman in the industry. She described her experiences in a Bisnow feature, The Black Experience.

“Being black in CRE presents a new opportunity to learn, grow and make money. It also means having access to a client base that typically has not been marketed to by a black broker or not met someone in CRE marketing who looks like him or her,” Fara said.

She added, “On the not-so-positive side, you can run into small-minded people. However, nothing succeeds like success. If you stay focused on the task at hand and do a great job, clients and peers alike will grow to respect you and focus on your ability to deliver.”

In addition to the efforts of individual companies, real estate organizations are working to attract people of color.

The Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors (ACBR), one of the largest realtor associations in America, has a variety of programs aimed at boosting diversity at all levels of commercial real estate.

“Atlanta has been very progressive in civil rights and race relations but our industry has lagged behind,” said Scotland Wright, former Diversity Committee chairman for ACBR, in a promotional video for the association’s diversity programs.

ACBR’s diversity’s initiatives include a mentorship program that helps mentees enhance their skills and expertise; a partnership program that combines the resources of ACBR with organizations such as CoreNet and NAIOP; and an annual event that presents a guest speaker from a diverse background who shares his or her experiences in the industry.

NAIOP, a commercial real estate network with more than 19,000 members, promotes diversity through initiatives such as the Inclusion in CRE Scholarship, which enters up to 10 women and minorities into a curriculum aimed at advancing their commercial real estate careers. The organization also provides examples of best practices companies have adopted to increase diversity.

The combination of job growth and the surge in GDP during the long-running economic recovery has been a boon to the commercial real estate sector.

In Atlanta and across the country, there has been continued strong demand and absorption for virtually all product types, and capital has been readily available for investment.

But will the good times continue? What next?

That was the focus of Ackerman & Co.’s recently held 12^th Annual Investor Conference, attended by some 150 guests, including owners, operators, investors and brokers.

Host Kris Miller and keynote speaker David Haddow weighed in with their perspective on current economic trends and their outlook for the commercial real estate sector. Joining them with in-depth discussions of investment opportunities for specific product types were F. Keene Miller (Brokerage), Leo Wiener (Retail), Brett Buckner (Industrial) and Evan Ziegler (Investments).

“After the last two years of success, growth and prosperity, the numbers would suggest that the future of commercial real estate has never been brighter. Yet each of us feels less certain than we did two years ago. Why? Is that how we should feel?” asked Kris Miller.

There are causes for concern, said David Haddow. Current economic soft spots, he said, include the rising national debt (now at $21.6 trillion, an increase of $10 trillion since 2008), government gridlock, fast-rising home prices and diminishing consumer confidence. Combined with those issues, the length of the current cycle (nearly 10 years) makes an economic correction more likely in the next 24 months, Kris added.

How should investors respond? Here are the three biggest takeaways provided by Kris and his Ackerman & Co. colleagues:

• Stay on the field.

• Focus on the specific strengths and weaknesses of each deal – rather than macro conditions across property types or markets.

• Adopt a bias toward selling.

The annual conference also provided guests an opportunity to learn about Ackerman & Co.’s 2018 business highlights as well as its goals for the coming year.

Last year’s highlights included Ackerman’s $70-million sale of Braselton Logistics Center to Uline Inc.; the $9.75-million acquisition of the four-building Warren Drive industrial portfolio in Atlanta; the completion of the 181-key Crowne Plaza Hotel in North Augusta; and the $15-million disposition of seven industrial buildings at Stone Mountain Industrial Park, to name a few.

Kris and the team thank everyone for attending despite the rare winter-weather advisory in Atlanta!

This weekend, Atlanta’s $1.6-billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host its biggest event to date – Super Bowl LIII.

The game will be viewed by 150-million-plus people worldwide and the full slate of events held across the city of Atlanta during Super Bowl week will pour an estimated $185 million into local hotels, restaurants, retailers and other businesses.

But the impact of this stadium – praised as “one of the most beautifully designed stadiums on the planet” by Architectural Digest – will extend far beyond the Super Bowl and other games, concerts and events held there.

Arthur Blank, owner the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, has stated: “the city is on fire” economically, and his goal is for the stadium to help Westside communities around the stadium share in that success.

Here’s a rundown of some of the key developments and initiatives taking shape near the stadium:

John F. Kennedy Park just west of the stadium is undergoing a $2-million renovation as part of the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee’s Legacy 53 initiative to create a lasting impact beyond the game itself. The improvements will include an artificial turf playing field, a community walking path, new playground equipment and a basketball court.

The Home Depot Backyard, 11-acres of multi-use greenspace created on the site of the former Georgia Dome, serves as a large tailgating space on game days and a community park the rest of the year. The “backyard” offers a destination playground, a 3-tier pavilion, and a large central lawn for soccer games, movie nights, farmers markets and more.

A 1,000-room Signia Hilton, a new upscale hotel brand from Hilton Worldwide, will serve the adjacent Georgia World Congress Center and a growing entertainment district in the area that includes Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Rodney Cook Sr. Park, a new $45-million, 16-acre park under development in the Vine City neighborhood, will feature a great lawn, public performance space and 18 monuments to civil rights and community leaders.

Westside Works is a long-term initiative focused on creating employment opportunities for residents of Westside communities and provides access to skills training, job readiness programs and more.

Reverb by Hard Rock, an 11-floor boutique a few blocks south of the stadium, will feature 200 rooms and a rooftop bar. Expected to open in 2020, the hotel is a new spinoff of the Hard Rock Hotel brand.

The 104-key Clarion Inn & Suites, completed in spring 2018 and situated in walking distance to the stadium, marked the first hotel opening in years on Atlanta’s Westside.