Houston Buyer Enters Market With $64M Flex Buy

ATLANTA-Houston-based Principle Equity Management has entered the market with the acquisition of a seven-building, 530,000-sf flex portfolio for $63.5 million. The portfolio was acquired from Boston-based AEW Capital Management.

The properties acquired include of four buildings with a total of 253,000 sf in Technology Park, a 500-acre park that currently has 3.8 million sf developed and more than 7,000 tenants. It is accessible to Interstate 85, GA 400 and the Interstate 285 Perimeter. Also acquired were three buildings with a total of 277,000 sf at Johns Creek, a park with 800 acres devoted to office, technology and medical/professional space and 5.8 million sf developed to date. In addition to close proximity to Interstate 85, GA 400 and Interstate 285, it is convenient to GA 141, GA 120 and McGinnis Ferry Road.

Principle Equity Management CEO Michael McQuay tells GlobeSt.com that the Technology Park buildings are 95% occupied and the Johns Creek buildings are 80% occupied. This is the company’s first acquisition in Atlanta. The company was attracted to acquiring the portfolio because of the strong leasing conditions in the Northeast Atlanta submarket where the buildings are located. “That submarket has substantially recovered since 2001-2002 and we see a lot of demand moving forward,” McQuay says.

McQuay adds that there are currently two large vacancies at the Johns Creek properties, of 26,000 sf and 16,000 sf, which the company will seek to fill. The buildings are stabilized class A assets which do not require any immediate capital improvements. “The properties have a strong rent roll and there is a lot of upside potential, particularly with the Johns Creek properties,” McQuay says.

The company currently owns two million sf in tenant-in-common properties across the country with a capital value of $300 million. “We’re looking at two more deals in Atlanta,” he says. “We like Atlanta; we’ve been trying to buy something here for years.”

Thomas Shafer, of locally based Resource Real Estate Partners LLC, repped the seller. PNC provided $48.7 million in debt for the transaction. Matt Franke, of Kinghorn, Driver, Hough, represented PNC in the transaction.