Lower Broadway building sells for $24.5M

Lower Broadway’s so-called Cotton-Eyed Joe Building has sold for $24.5 million.

A release does not include the buyer of the five-story building, located at 200 Broadway, and the Post has been unable to determine. However, the new owner seemingly is eyeing a rooftop deck and other updates (read here).

The seller was TAC 200 Broadway LLC  — which includes Atlanta-based The Ardent Companies and entertainer and singer John Rich. That entity paid $18.5 million for the property in April 2019 (read here) and then listed the building for sale for $27 million in November of that year — the equivalent of almost $1,400 per foot. The sellers saw a roughly 32 percent return on their investment, the release notes.

Seth Harlan, a broker with locally based Robin Realty, represented the LLC in the sale of the property. The deal is the equivalent of almost $1,260 per square foot. The offering was the equivalent of about $1,385 per foot.

Since the beginning of 2018, buildings located in The District have commanded a range of per-foot prices spanning approximately $850 to $1,050.

Cotton-Eyed Joe, which has been closed for some time, offered clothing, records and souvenir.

Nashville-based Scott Sales Co. previously owned the building, having acquired it in 1993 for $1.25 million, according to Metro records. The company (known, in part, for distributing souvenirs) has its headquarters in Rutledge Hill.

Constructed in 1900 and sitting on 0.09 acres, the primarily brick building ranks among the larger structures in The District. It spans about 19,500 square feet and is located catty-corner from the building home to Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery.

The addition the past few years of country music-themed restaurants and bars — including, but not limited to, Ole Red and Luke Bryan’s 32 Bridge — have placed an increased spotlight on The District. Rich, who owns Lower Broadway theme bar Redneck Riviera, said the area’s bars and restaurants can record gross revenue of between $18 million and $23 million per year.

“America gives us the right to pursue our dreams and I have and will continue to do that right here in Nashville,” Rich said in the release. “As this great city continues to evolve, we welcome our new neighbors here on Lower Broad as they set forth on fulfilling their goals.”

TAG Heuer Leads Raft Of New Signings At Touchwood, Solihull

he Ardent Companies (Ardent), the US-based real estate investment and asset management firm, has secured five new lettings at Touchwood Shopping Centre in Solihull, watch boutique, TAG Heuer, Xcelerate Gym, eateries including Dirty Wild Wings and Alioli, and skin care and cosmetics clinic chain, Laser Clinics, amounting to a total of over 15,400 sq ft. The new lettings quickly follow Ardent’s acquisition of Touchwood Shopping centre in July this year, including the appointment of a new asset management team to drive proactive improvements to the shopping environment in collaboration with new and existing retailers.
TAG Heuer, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, will take a store on the ground floor within Touchwood’s Crescent Arcade, adjacent to fellow premium jewellery brands, Goldsmiths and Ernest Jones. It will be the only standalone TAG Heuer store within Solihull, serving the town’s affluent catchment and is operated by the Watches of Switzerland Group – who also own Goldsmiths.
Gym operator, Xcelerate, will open only its second site in the UK at Touchwood, taking a 7,819 sq ft unit located off Solihull high street. Laser Clinics, Alioli, the independent tapas bar concept, and Dirty Wild Wings, the fried chicken eatery, will all open stores within the Mill Lane section of the shopping centre, taking 1,931 sq ft, 3,790 sq ft, and 272 sq ft respectively.
Andrew Hilston, Managing Director, Ardent, commented: “TAG Heuer, Xcelerate, Laser Clinics, Alioli, and Dirty Wild Wings all bring a fresh offering to Touchwood’s tenant line-up at an exciting time for the centre. Solihull is a key visitor location within the region with a strong lifestyle offer, as well as a central destination within the UK that is set to be a major beneficiary of HS2. Touchwood is positioned to play a key role within Solihull Council’s bold ambition for growth in the coming years, particularly in the run up to the 2022 Commonwealth games, which will be a major driver of footfall and retail spend in the town centre.
Craig Bolton, Executive Director, Watches of Switzerland Group, which owns TAG Heuer, commented: “We are delighted to announce another beautiful contemporary TAG Heuer boutique to our portfolio with Touchwood and excited to see our partnership with TAG Heuer grow from strength to strength.”
The raft of new lettings mark Ardent’s intent to strengthen Touchwood’s position as a prime retail pitch in the West Midlands through a new asset management strategy focussed on enhancing the centre’s tenant mix across retail, leisure, F&B and services.
Joint agents representing Ardent and Touchwood are Cushman & Wakefield and Knight Frank.

JLL arranges $421.8M Refinancing for Atlanta’s Piedmont Center

JLL announced today that its Capital Markets group arranged a $421.8 million financing for Piedmont Center, a 14-building, 2.2 million-square-foot, Class A office complex in Atlanta, Georgia.

JLL worked on behalf of the borrower, The Ardent Companies, to secure the floating-rate loan.  Proceeds were used to refinance the debt of Ardent’s existing holdings within Piedmont Center plus the acquisition of four additional buildings within the office complex.

Piedmont Center is located on 45.5 acres at 3495-3575 Piedmont Rd. NE in the affluent Buckhead submarket. Buckhead is just four miles north of Midtown Atlanta and offers diverse amenities, including world class shopping, museums, art galleries and recreation venues. The area is served by major thoroughfares such as Georgia 400, Lenox, Peachtree and Roswell Roads as well as a Marta station providing service throughout the Atlanta area.

Built in various stages between 1977 and 1998, Piedmont Center recently underwent renovations to its exterior and amenity areas with additional improvements planned over the next few years. The diverse tenant roster across the portfolio includes firms in the high-growth industries of healthcare, technology and professional services.

JLL’s Capital Markets team representing the borrower was led by Senior Managing Director Ed Coco and Senior Director Matt Casey.

Additionally, JLL’s brokerage team led by Jeff Taylor and David Horne won the assignment to lease Buildings 5-8.

“Through its consolidation of ownership within Piedmont Center, Ardent has created a huge opportunity to reinvent the office campus into a more dynamic workplace setting with greater mixed-use amenities and an environment desired in today’s market,” Coco said. “We look forward to seeing the transformation in the years ahead.”

“With this purchase, we continue to demonstrate our opportunistic investment strategy while leveraging our relationships to secure capital,” said Scott Werbel, Managing Director at Ardent. “This deal underscores Ardent’s commitment to the office sector in our key markets, and we will continue to look for these opportunities as we expand our geographic footprint further.”

According to JLL’s Second Quarter Office Outlook, the U.S. office market is stabilizing and overall transaction volume rose by 28.7 percent in second quarter as tenants begin to execute long-awaited deals. In growth markets leasing is now 10 percent higher over the year, and in markets such as Atlanta, office leasing has recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

JLL’s Capital Markets group is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm’s in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment advisory, debt placement, equity placement or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,700 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

For more news, videos and research resources on JLL, please visit our newsroom.

About Ardent
Ardent is a privately held real estate firm focused on opportunistic and diversified investment strategies. With significant industry experience and a demonstrated track record, Ardent leverages its established relationships and capital flexibility to attain a diverse set of risk-adjusted investments. The firm seeks opportunities with an innovative and disciplined approach, making material co-investments alongside operating partners for maximum alignment. As the firm continues to build upon its infrastructure, portfolio, and footprint, Ardent is committed to creating a positive impact on its employees, investors, and communities.

About JLL
JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $16.6 billion, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of more than 92,000 as of June 30, 2021. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.

Ardent Acquires Shopping Centre in Second UK Investment

Atlanta Firm Buys Four Piedmont Center Buildings, Now Owns Entire Buckhead Project

Buckhead Industrial Building Eyed For Church Project

Christ Covenant Buckhead Corporation has submitted plans to turn an almost 50,000-square-foot industrial building in the Armour Yards area into a new church, according to a special administrative permit application filed with the city of Atlanta last month.

The existing property, which is at 221 Armour Dr., is under contract to be purchased by Christ Covenant, a growing Atlanta church, according to Bradley Fulkerson, a senior managing director with Transwestern, the brokerage and development consultant for the project. The warehouse property was acquired by TAC Armour Ottley LLC, a company registered to asset management firm The Ardent Companies, for about $6.16 million in 2019, according to Fulton County property records.

Plans call for revamped building to serve as a new permanent church location for Christ Covenant, which launched in 2017 and currently meets at the Stave Room in Buckhead Atlanta’s Armour Yards commercial district. The church expects to need $15 million in financing for the project, including $9.4 million to purchase the building and about $5 million to renovate it, according to its website. It is looking to raise $4 to $6 million in cash and pledges.

“From the beginning, we’ve been blessed with rental spaces all over our city and we’ve had many of them,” Christ Covenant Senior Pastor Jason Dees said in a video about the church’s plans.

“This has been a discussion of Christ Covenant for some time, but the leadership of our church has made a unified decision that now is the time for our church to purchase a stable ministry space for our worship, for our ministries, so that disciple-making can go forward and that we can continue to impact Atlanta and the world for Christ.”

Project plans call for a renovation of the building’s front facade and entrance area, replacing a loading dock and service area with a front porch, handicapped ramping, and a vehicular drop-off area, according to the applicant’s SAP documents. Streetscape improvements to match the adaptive reuse project are also planned.

The new church building would hold an 880-seat auditorium, lounge space, and space for The Collective, a part of the church that offers coworking space, among other features, plans show.

Transwestern’s Atlanta Tenant Advisory Team has been representing Christ Covenant in its search for a permanent home, while the project architect is Cooper Carry.

The adaptive reuse project is one of several in Buckhead’s Armour Yards commercial district.

“Christ Covenant Church is delighted to be joining the current tenants and property owners in the Armour Yards submarket,” Fulkerson emailed What Now Atlanta. “Armour Yards offers a unique urban environment with a variety of uses and amenities from office and retail to warehouse.”

Construction at 221 Armour Drive is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year for occupancy in the second quarter of next year, according to Fulkerson.

Ardent Acquires Shopping Centre in Second UK Investment

The Ardent Companies Completes $76+ Million UK Acquisition

Investor & Asset Manager Ardent Launches New $530 Million UK Real Estate Investment Business

Hedge Fund Buys 400+ Acres in Millville Area

MILLVILLE —  An Atlanta hedge fund has purchased more than 440 acres of land in Millville By The Sea, a master-planned community once marketed as Delaware’s next great beach town.

Brokered by Delaware Land Advisors, The Ardent Companies of Atlanta bought the residential community 5 miles west of Bethany Beach for an estimated $13.5 million, according to county land records. The seller was listed as Millville Town Center, a limited liability company created in partnership with investment firm IHP Capital Partners, developer Miller & Smith and homebuilder The Christopher Companies.

The property was an asset to the California Public Employees Retirement System (CALPERS), according to Delaware Land Advisors. The sale closed in September 2020, according to land records.

Ardent Companies expects to develop the land in partnership with a yet-to-be named national homebuilder into another 1,300 lots for a total yield of 2,000 residential units.

“When you see hedge funds purchase residential property like this, it’s usually to take the project through the entitlement phase and then take it to market for a substantial profit,” Delaware Land Advisors President Stephen Ferrandi told the Delaware Business Times.

Millville By the Sea was first proposed by developers in 2005 as the state’s largest-ever-approved development, with 3,000 homes built on 756 acres over 12 years. After a year of proposals, meetings and hearings, it broke ground at the end of 2006.

IHP Capital Partners, headquartered in Virginia with connections in California, signed with CALPERS as the project’s underlying investor. When Millville By The Sea was master-planned, IHP Capital Partners eventually partnered with Miller & Smith and The Christopher Companies to build homes.

The first community, the Sand Dollar Village with 197 homes in five styles, was completed in 2008. As the years passed, other phases continued construction, with Ryan Homes and The Christopher Companies buying the 400 lots to be built. Eventually, a 17,000-square-foot campus opened, with a pool and pool house, a fitness center and a crab shack pavilion overlooking a 6-acre lake.

But as the recession hit the housing market hard, home-buying slowed down over the years, which eventually extended CALPERS’ plan to sell its stake in the endeavor, Ferrandi said.

Because of the available land and its proximity to the beaches, land in Sussex County is a hot market for hedge funds and developers, Ferandi added. Regional builders may not have the money to take raw land through the entitlement process with local governments, utilities and other entities.

“This amount of raw land is something you wouldn’t see in other markets. Typically what you see is 100 to 200 lots, but in D.C. and Baltimore, it can be as small as 50 to 75 lots. Where the interest lies is that taking it through entitlement raises the price of that raw land,” he said. “For example, you can take farmland that may be worth $4,000 per acre. After entitlement, it will be worth $20,000 per lot and each acre having three lots minimum.”

The Ardent Companies’ local partner on the project will be Rod Hart, who previously served as Delaware and Maryland division president for both Beazer Homes and Lennar.

Ardent is no stranger to Sussex County, having invested in the 119-lot Solitude at Whites Creek community in Ocean View. The hedge fund backed that project through a joint venture with local homebuilder Schell Brothers, acquiring a bank-owned portfolio of assets that included the 40 acres of land adjacent to White Creek in a short sale. That community has seen all of its lots purchased, according to Schell Brothers.