37%-Vacant Strip Center Nabs Record Price

ATLANTA-It was the kind of deal that only a positive-thinking investor could make in the existing economic climate, Mark Cooley, a senior investment sales advisor at the Shopping Center Group in Atlanta tells GlobeSt.com.

Locally based Brown and Gruin paid Transwestern/MONY Glenridge LLC $3.8 million or $234.44 per sf for the newly constructed, 16,209-sf Glenridge Point Shopping Center in one of the city’s larger business districts–even though the center is 37% vacant.

The deal is believed to be the highest per-sf-price transaction of its kind this year in metro Atlanta.

The sale closed in a speedy 45 days after Brown and Gruin took only 14 days to inspect the property. The buyer plunked down $100,000 in earnest money with the contract–money that could have been lost if the deal didn’t go through. The property traded at a 6.8% cap rate with a net operating income of $256,902.

“The buyer loved the location of the property, being next to two million sf office that is 96% occupied, and three hospitals down the street,” Cooley tells GlobeSt.com.” This is why he put up a $100,000 earnest money deposit and closed on the deal so quickly.” The broker says he had two other offers for the same price.

Transwestern was asking $4.8 million or $296.13 per sf. The property is at the intersection of Glenridge Point Parkway and Johnson Ferry Road in the Central Perimeter business district. Access to Interstate 285 and GA400 is a half mile from the center. There are about 7,525 businesses and 85,125 daytime employees in a one-mile radius of the property.

Cooley tells GlobeSt.com the center has signed leases with Cingular Wireless, Chastain Cleaners, Gruby’s New York Deli, Great Wraps and Moe’s Southwest Grill. Average quoted rent is $25 to $27 per sf.

The area is anchored by Scottish Rite Hospital, Northside Hospital, Perimeter Mall and 16 million sf of class A office space. Glenridge Point 300, a proposed 300,000-sf office tower, will be developed across from Glenridge Point Shopping Center, Cooley tells GlobeSt.com.