Adent UK Makes £21.3 Million Double Light Industrial Buy
The Ardent Companies UK , the acquisitive subsidiary of US-based real estate investment and asset management firm The Ardent Companies, has completed the acquisition of two light industrial assets for a total of £21.3 million.
The acquisitions, made as part of Ardent UK’s strategy to establish a geographically balanced logistics portfolio, comprise Tokenspire Business Park in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire and 717B North Circular Road in Brent, north west London.
Tokenspire Business Park comprises 306,000 sq ft of space across 36 separate units and was acquired from Vengrove Real Estate Management for £15.55 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.57%. The site includes planning permission for eight new units, including five trade counters, which will mark Ardent UK’s first move into development.
In London, 717B North Circular Road was purchased from Pears Group for £5.75 million. The 15,104 sq ft unit, set within a 0.75-acre site, is entirely let to Comptoir Group at an annual rent of £150,000, with a reversionary yield of 4.5%.
The latest additions bring Ardent UK’s industrial portfolio to over two million sq ft and are in line with its wider strategy of targeting assets in strategic locations that offer the opportunity for significantly enhanced performance and value through active asset management. In addition to further aggregation of its industrial platform, Ardent UK is exploring opportunities in the retail sector “ with repositioning potential or availability at discounted pricing “ and operational-led assets.
Richard Benson, managing director at Ardent UK, said: “While the industrial market is a hugely competitive space, there are still opportunities to be grasped for firms like Ardent UK that hold the asset management expertise to drive further growth. Both of these locations offer significant reversionary potential alongside wider asset management opportunities, particularly at Tokenspire with planning permission in place for eight new units that will be our first development activity in the UK.
“.Our industrial platform is now over two million sq ft and our wider portfolio includes assets in other sectors such as Solihull’s Touchwood shopping centre, underlining just how much has been achieved in the year since we launched. As we continue to build our platform, the opportunities presented by its geographical reach and the operational and management capabilities of our team leave us ideally-placed for future growth.
Ardent Companies Captures $38M For Midtown Urban Retail Center
The Ardent Companies, LLC, has sold 1010 Midtown, a 44,302-square-foot urban retail center Atlanta’s Midtown area, for $38 million. A JLL team of Brad Buchanan, Jim Hamilton and Andrew Kahn represented the seller; East Coast Acquisitions purchased the asset.
The center comprises the ground level of a 425-unit luxury condominium building that was not included in the sale.
The 2008-constructed property on Peachtree Street is 94% leased to a curated mix of high-performing tenants, including Sugar Factory, RA Sushi Bar, Piedmont Healthcare, Silverlake Ramen, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Panera Brad, Sweathouz, Chipotle and Sage Dental.
1010 Midtown serves a dense customer base that, within a two-mile radius, includes a daytime population of more than 216,773 and a residential base of 109,750, which JLL states is anticipated to grow 12.2 percent by 2026.
Ardent UK Strengthens Team With Appointment Of New Finance Director
The Ardent Companies (“Ardent”), the US-based real estate investment and asset management firm, has bolstered its team with the appointment of Suzie Cooper as its UK Finance Director. Suzie brings a wealth of experience in Real Estate finance, joining from London-based investment firm, Henley Investment Management, where she led the corporate finance function and designed the financial control environment to enable further growth. Preceding her role at Henley, Suzie worked for Grosvenor Estate for over 17 years.
In her new role, Suzie will work alongside the UK co-Managing Directors Andrew Hilston and Richard Benson to raise UK capital as well as support the investment and performance analysis of Ardent’s acquisitions, leasing and disposals. With Suzie’s added expertise, Ardent will be able to accelerate its UK growth by adding to its diverse portfolio of opportunity-led investments which span multiple sectors across the entire UK.
Richard Benson, Managing Director, Ardent, commented: “We are impressed by Suzie’s extensive track record as a senior finance professional, with experience across private equity, investment and asset management firms. Suzie’s experience of designing and implementing streamlined processes to drive efficiency will prove invaluable as we look to grow our UK portfolio and expand into new cities and sectors in the coming months.
Suzie Cooper commented: “Ardent’s incredible ambition and rapid growth in the UK market was a major attraction of the role. I’m looking forward to sharing my experience with the team as we continue to expand Ardent’s impressive portfolio.”
Switchyards To Open Buckhead Outpost At Piedmont Center
The first Buckhead location of Switchyards is headed for the Piedmont Center.
The Atlanta-based work club will occupy just over 5,000 square feet at the 14-building office campus, marking the first slate of collaborative, coworking-style spaces to open at the Piedmont Center.
The announcement of the Switchyards opening is the next step forward for The Ardent Cos.’s multiyear revitalization of the 45-acre Buckhead campus, which includes 2.2 million square feet of commercial office space. It follows the addition of spec suites to the Piedmont Center in an effort to expand flexible office options for future and existing tenants.
Founded in 2016, Switchyards is a members-only workspace operating in four neighborhoods throughout Atlanta: Cabbagetown, the Westside, downtown and Decatur. They’re open, communal spaces anchored by coffee shops and quiet “heads down library” areas. For $50 a month, members have access to all four locations.
The Piedmont Center space, which spans the ground floor of Building 3, is the first of Switchyards locations to open directly in an office campus. It’s also the first to have an expansive courtyard — existing locations have outdoor tables, but the Buckhead location opens out into a “football field of a front yard,” said Switchyards founder Michael Tavani — and a wealth of accessible parking. It’s a setting conducive “to the way people work today,” said Ardent Managing Director Mike Guynn — where outdoor spaces have quickly become value-added amenities.
“I’ve always wanted a big landlord to utilize Switchyards in this way, which is putting Switchyards in the middle of a big development where we become this third place, this hotel lobby of a big development,” Tavani said.
The Buckhead location is the next to follow Switchyards’ December launch in Decatur. At a higher membership price of $100, it was the first location to implement Switchyards’ new 24-hour silent library model.
The location will open on February 22.
Start Spec Office Program Part Of Reimagined Piedmont Center
The Ardent Companies has announced Start Spec, a speculative office program at Piedmont Center, the two million-square-foot, Class-A campus that spans 14 buildings in Buckhead.
Interested companies will be able to choose from several flexible, creative offices paces, ranging from 2,200 to more than 7,000 square feet at the site located at 3525 Piedmont Road.
The first phase of Start Spec encompasses eight office spaces, each offering a unique architectural feature, such as wood ceiling tiles or jewel box conference spaces. Companies can furnish the space themselves or select a turnkey option.
Tenants will also have access to a 144-seat auditorium, 30,000 square feet of WiFi-enabled outdoor space, state-of-the art fitness centers, on-site cafes, dedicated rideshare pickup zones, a Relay Bike Share station. and more.
The campus is surrounded by a 1.2-mile nature trail, bridge connections, and links to adjacent properties are planned to enhance walkability to nearby housing, retail, and restaurants.
Start Spec is part of Ardent’s ongoing transformation of Piedmont Center into a mixed-use destination. Ardent began its investment into Piedmont Center in 2016, completing its acquisition of all 14 buildings in June 2021.
“As we continue to make strides in revitalizing the campus into an amenity-rich destination, we’re confident the reimagined Piedmont Center will not only serve our diverse tenant mix, but also the entire Buckhead community,” said Mike Guynn, managing director with Ardent.
For more information, visit pcstartspec.com.
Ardent Cos. Adding 8 Spec Suites to Piedmont Center
As part of its multiyear revitalization of Buckhead’s Piedmont Center, the Ardent Cos. is integrating eight spec suites across its 45-acre campus.
The slate of spec suites — pre-built, “turnkey” spaces that allow tenants to skirt delays usually required in office buildout — is Ardent’s latest venture to integrate flexible office space into Piedmont Center.
It’s also a response to a broader market trend of tenants seeking agile options as pandemic-related uncertainty muddies their immediate needs for space and accommodation. Betting on an improvement in demand for office space in 2022, global real estate research firm CBRE anticipates flexible space adoption will accelerate in the next year.
“The economy continues to grow — our current tenants are growing, outside tenants looking for space sometimes do not have the luxury of time on their side to identify and secure an office location,” said Ardent Cos. Managing Director Mike Guynn.
The key advantage of a spec suite is flexibility. They’re offices for the nimble — less communal than coworking spaces, but structured with the same ability to scale.
The lease execution for a spec suite is typically shorter than a traditional office space, which allows businesses or firms to easily move-in or move-out on tighter timelines. Similarly, lease terms are less rigid — spanning three years instead of five or 10, as an example. CBRE anticipates tenants becoming less hesitant with signing longer-term leasing decisions as office rebounds in 2022, but the shorter leasing option is still an attractor to companies in growth mode.
The added benefit of flexibility doesn’t come for free, however — owners are often inclined to charge premiums for ready-built spec spaces, according to a pre-pandemic study of speculative office spaces by commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark.
Atlanta is not a leading flexible office market. It’s not lacking, however — there is a concentration of coworking spaces within a five-mile radius around Piedmont Center — but its inventory is far lower than that of other Sunbelt cities like San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
Embedding flexibility into their offerings became a key part of Ardent’s business model as it began to modernize the property in 2016. It comes with the territory — there’s enough space across the 14-building Piedmont Center campus to grow with tenants as their needs evolve.
Past and current tenants have jumped from space to space as their operations have outpaced expectations from when they signed their initial lease. The idea to add spec suites to their portfolio — a program named Start Spec — partially came out of tenants’ requests for options to expand.
“In the last 12 months, we get more phone calls from people saying we need X amount of square feet for the next six to 12 months or two years, or we just got funding as a new company and we’re ready to expand into a real office space,” Guynn said.
Ardent will spread out the spec suites throughout the 14-building campus, with spaces ranging between 2,200 and 7,000 square feet and varying in design. Asking rents will vary based on the space, and Ardent anticipates delivering the units in January or February of next year.
he Ardent Companies (“Ardent”), the US-based real estate investment and asset management firm, has added to its growing UK logistics portfolio with two new mid-box acquisitions in Peterlee, County Durham and Pickering, North Yorkshire. The properties were acquired in a single 285,000 sq ft transaction from Alliance Property Group for approximately £11m, representing a net initial yield of 7%.
Ardent’s logistics portfolio now totals 1.7m sq ft across 14 different strategic locations across the UK, and the team continues to seek out value-add opportunities in multiple sectors including industrial and retail.
The assets in Peterlee and Pickering are fully let to specialist automotive manufacturers and offer a weighted average unexpired lease term of approximately 12.5 years.
PETERLEE
The 50,124 sq ft facility in Peterlee, strategically located on the town’s North Industrial Estate close to the major A19, with Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the north and Leeds to the south. The main building is fully occupied by the global technology company ZF International UK LTD, which has been the main tenant for over 19 years. ZF is focused on the transformation of mobility, supplying systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology – enabling the next generation of mobility, allowing vehicles to see, think and act.
PICKERING
The 234,685 sq ft facility in Pickering, North Yorkshire, consists of three detached buildings across a large industrial scheme which vary in size and age. The tenant Xandor Automotive, alongside its client Jaguar Land Rover, has recently injected significant investment into plant and machinery at the facility.
Richard Benson, Managing Director of Ardent, said; “These acquisitions perfect align with our strategy to assemble a diverse portfolio of opportunity-led investments. Both assets benefit from offering bespoke, high-specification facilities that serve the needs of cutting-edge automotive operators. These two new deals in the portfolio underline our appetite to grow Ardent’s industrial platform in the UK, particularly opportunity-led investments.
In accordance with Ardent’s structure of maximizing alignment of interests within its portfolio and with its partners, it will introduce M7 as asset manager to continue to drive the value of the wider portfolio.
Ardent was represented by CBRE, while the vendor, Alliance Property Group, was advised by Avison Young
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.
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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.