Editors’ Weekly News Roundup January 13 – January 17
From the standpoint of both square footage and the gap between previous and current values, Piedmont Center in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood is among the higher-profile examples of office distress that Connect CRE has reported in recent months. The headline on the past week’s most-read story, Buckhead’s 2.2M-SF Piedmont Center Bracing for Foreclosure, tells a story in and of itself.
The 14-building, suburban-style office complex was valued at $657 million in 2021, when its current ownership took out a loan from Morgan Stanley. The lender now intends to foreclose on that loan on Feb. 4, and the property may fetch $200 million in a sale—a 70% decline in valuation.
Although retail has rebounded more strongly from the pandemic than the office sector has, there continue to be bankruptcy filings and downsizings of store counts. We reported the regional implications of a national downsizing program in Macy’s Announces Florida Store Closures.
Our second most-read story of the previous week, this report out of Florida listed the Sunshine State cities in which Macy’s plans to shutter locations this year. It also put the Florida closures into a broader national context as far as the retailer is concerned.
On the subject of bankruptcies and store closures, a 2024 closure has now resulted in an opportunity for a Southern California-based operator—and Connect CRE’s third most-read story of the past week. Former Red Lobster Adjacent to Montclair Place Sells to Owner/User detailed the sale of the vacant restaurant property to the owner and operator of a popular chain of sit-down Mexican eateries across SoCal.
The property sits on an outparcel that’s advantageously located next to a 1.2-million-square-foot regional shopping center. Fully built out, it has sat idle since Red Lobster’s bankruptcy filing this past summer.
Connect CRE’s fourth most-read story of the week returned to the office sector. Here, though, the circumstances were more fortuitous. CBRE Group Inc. already held a 40% stake in flexible workspace provider Industrious; now it will own the platform outright.
We reported in CBRE Will Take Full Ownership of Industrious that the services giant will create a new business segment called Building Operations & Experience (BOE), to be led by Industrious CEO Jamie Hodari, who will also serve as CBRE’s chief commercial officer. The new BOE segment will consist of CBRE’s Enterprise Facilities Management, Local Facilities Management, Property Management and Industrious.
Rounding out the top five was another Florida story, this one on a strictly local level—although the developer is based in Brooklyn. Arosa Developers is seeking approval from a planning board for a 600-foot-tall rental apartment tower, a quest we reported in Arosa Looking to Build Ft. Lauderdale’s Tallest Building.
The 54-story tower at 314 NE 3rd St. would be 100 feet taller than Fort Lauderdale’s current high-rise champ, 100 Los Olas, a residential condominium development. However, Kushner Companies and AIMCO have secured approval for a pair of towers up to 572 feet tall.
Speaking of multifamily, check out the latest Weekender for a story on the current balance of supply and demandin the sector and where it may be going from here. If you don’t receive the Weekender, sign up for it here.