Deals Around Atlanta

City Commercial, ALG Form Real Professionals First Coalition

Rick Lackey and Robert Armstrong go together like gin and tonic on a summer’s day. We’ll let you decide which one’s the gin and which one’s the tonic.

Ever since they met as young hot shots at Royal LePage in the late 1980s, it was practically destined that the two would work together. Over the past five or six years, they’ve twice tried to complete a merger -- once while Lackey was head of Grubb & Ellis’s Atlanta office -- but circumstances, including 9-11 five years ago, prevented it.

Now, Lackey’s City Commercial Real Estate and Armstrong’s Atlanta Land Group have merged to form Real Professionals First Coalition. As more pieces are added to Real Professionals First -- Lackey and Armstrong already have a few ideas for future M&A -- it will emerge as a consortium of boutique real estate firms that allows member firms to maintain their autonomy while creating sensible exit strategies for owners as well as operating efficiencies and scale, especially with technology, book keeping, insurance and creating new opportunities through sharing information, one of the company’s core values. City Commercial, which Lackey started in 2002, and ALG, which Armstrong started in 1998, will continue to operate as separate business units under the Real Professionals First umbrella.

Using that scale to share administrative costs and responsibilities also allows Armstrong and Lackey to continue to produce and mentor their firms’ young professionals, who, if they measure up, are offered equity stakes in both the company and potential development deals.

“We’re encouraging entrepreneurialism at all levels,” Lackey said. “This is not rocket science.”

“But it is a lot of knowledge, experience and relationships,” Armstrong added.

Best of all, they say (and they’re only half kidding, if that), the combined firm has 16 renewable season tickets to University of Georgia football games. Athens may never be the same.


Ackerman & Co. Subsidiary Considers Condos

More condos for Buckhead? Perhaps.

A subsidiary of Ackerman & Co., Ackerman-Stratford Associates Ltd., has filed a Development of Regional Impact report with the state department of community affairs for a mixed-use development at Peachtree and Stratford roads that would include 498 condominiums, a 300-room hotel and 12,510 square feet of retail.

Late last year, Ackerman wrapped up assemblage of 13 acres in Buckhead by acquiring the .64-acre Second Church of Christ Scientist site at 3372 Peachtree for $3.25 million. No time frame for the Ackerman & Co. project has been disclosed. It is adjacent to City Centre Properties’ The Mansion mixed-use development and a few blocks from Novare’s Real condo development.


Trust for Public Land’s BeltLine Sale

The Trust for Public Land is selling parcels along the Atlanta BeltLine that the nonprofit organization acquired as potential parkland but was not designated as green space under the City of Atlanta’s BeltLine Redevelopment Plan.

According to the organization, buyers will be selected based on development experience in the Atlanta market, financing and bid value. Each buyer will be asked to deposit 10% upon execution of the contract and must be able to close within 45 days.

The first parcel up for bid is 1057 Boulevard SE. TPL expects a minimum bid of $2.15 million based on current fair market value for the 3.765-acre tract that it purchased as part of an 8.5-acre assemblage along Schuyler, Boulevard and Englewood avenues.

A sample contract and property-specific information -- including maps, photos, property descriptions and City of Atlanta and community guidelines for development -- are available on TPL’s web site, www.tpl.org. For further information, contact bidinfo@tpl.org.


Taylor & Mathis Trailblazing

Taylor & Mathis has completed the first building at its Stonecrest office park, which marks the first Class A office development with top-tier property management in the Stonecrest/Conyers area. At the 54,681-square-foot office building, Taylor & Mathis has leased 11,289 square feet to Coldwell Banker, Re/Max and Cotton States. Cadillac Fairview owns the property, which delivered last month, and Taylor & Mathis is responsible for leasing and development.

Taylor & Mathis also has completed TownPark Ravine Three in Kennesaw. The four-story, 100,788-square-foot Class A building delivered in June and marks the first development of the Ravine project’s second phase. Ravine One is 92.5% leased, and Ravine Two is 92.2% leased.


California JV Acquires Lincoln Parc Apartment Community

As part of a multifamily trade involving 1,918 units in Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Tennessee, a joint venture between El Segundo, CA-based Pacific Coast Capital Partners (PCCP) and San Francisco-based Jackson Square Properties has acquired Lincoln Parc apartments in Norcross. A private partnership based in Phoenix sold Lincoln Parc, which is part of the Maple Leaf portfolio, for an undisclosed amount.

Lincoln Parc, at 2100 Winters Park Drive, includes 344 one- and two-bedroom units on 27.5 acres and is 85% occupied. Built in 1988, the 20-building property is 2 miles north of I-85 and I-285.


Northpark 500 Gets Rheemed

Rheem Manufacturing has leased 16,000 square feet at NorthPark 500 and is moving its corporate headquarters from the Chrysler Building in New York to Atlanta’s Central Perimeter.

Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT’s Steve Keyes and Spencer Smith represented Rheem in the 10-year deal at the 515,735-square-foot building, while Trammell Crow’s Richard Nash represented ownership, Domain Capital Advisors.


Synovus Takes Mansell One Space

Synovus Financial Corp. has leased 7,204 square feet at Mansell One, 3700 Mansell Road in Alpharetta, for five years. Kevin Carroll of CB Richard Ellis represented Synovus, while Chip Roach of PM Realty Group represented ownership, Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada.

TPA Sells Piece of The Bluffs

TPA Realty Services has sold a 23.6-acre tract at The Bluffs at Technology Park in Canton to the Cherokee County Commission for approximately $2 million (or $84,750 per acre).

The Cherokee County Commission plans to build a $23 million county administration and conference center at the 770-acre, master-planned office park near I-575.


People: Thad Ellis Joins Cousins, etc…

· Thad Ellis has joined Cousins Properties as senior vice president. Ellis starts Sept. 5, and will lead Cousins Properties Services, the company’s third-party office management and leasing division. He joins Cousins from GVA Advantis where he served as managing director of the firm’s Atlanta office and a member of its executive committee.

· Seabie Hickson, formerly senior vice president, has been promoted to executive vice president of The Brookdale Group. Hickson joined the company at its formation in 1994 and is a partner in the Brookdale investment funds. Patrick Walsh, formerly vice president/operations, has been promoted to senior vice president at The Brookdale Group. Walsh joined Brookdale in 1996 and also is a partner in the Brookdale investment funds.