Hines and GE Buy Second Office Asset

ATLANTA-Ashford Perimeter, a high-profile, 288,000-sf, 89%-leased office building with 48,000-sf floor plates in the Central Perimeter submarket, is under new ownership today.

Area brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com the Hines Suburban Office Venture of Houston and Stamford, CT-based GE Real Estate paid Glenborough Realty Trust Inc. of San Mateo, CA an estimated $51 million, or about $180 per sf, for the 20-year-old, six-story, class A asset at Ashford Dunwood Road and Interstate 285.

Hines and GE declined to disclose the purchase price. “We do not talk about purchase or sale prices,” Hines media coordinator George Lancaster tells GlobeSt.com.

But area brokers familiar with the Central Perimeter submarket tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the per-sf-price is comparable to the estimated $82.84 million, or $190 per sf, that Wells Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. paid last week to New York-based TIAA-CREF for the three-year-old, 19-story, 436,000-sf Glenridge Highlands Two office tower in the same submarket.

Hines and GE went forward with the deal at this time because Ashford Perimeter was “an exceptional gateway location in the Central Perimeter submarket,” Hines senior vice president Bob Voyles says in a prepared statement. He adds the property will be “an excellent opportunity for the venture to add value.” Voyles says the partnership has about $650 million to invest.

“We felt that this asset was a perfect fit for our investment strategy,” says Stephen Hoover, GE Real Estate managing director of strategic ventures. “We’re continuing to evaluate properties in markets around the US for additional investment opportunities.”

Ashford Perimeter is the partners’ second acquisition. The joint venture’s first acquisition was the Manhattan Towers office buildings complex in Manhattan Beach, CA. Hines broke into the Atlanta office market in 1985 with the development of Ravinia mixed-use office complex.

Ashford Perimeter’s corporate tenants include Verizon Wireless, Noble Systems Corp., XO Communications of GA and Coalition of America. Hines will manage the property which has about 29,000 sf of available space to lease. A four-level adjacent parking garage provides spaces for 843 vehicles and a surface lot has 126 additional parking spaces.

Hines’ Lancaster tells GlobeSt.com rents “are in the $20 – $23 (per sf) range, similar to other good properties in the area.”