Crocker Sells Woodlands to Barksdale for $100.50 Per SF

JACKSON, MS-Crocker Realty Trust, a privately-held, Boca Raton, FL-based REIT and Atlanta-based Barksdale Management Co. are both winners in a $17-million deal over a 13-year-old, four-building asset. Crocker sold the Woodlands, a 169,152-sf, 90.3%-leased office park, to tenant Barksdale for $100.50 per sf. That’s a good price for a maturing property, area brokers say. Barksdale received an almost fully-occupied asset with a steady cash stream at a below-replacement cost. One of the buildings in the 3.26-acre park can be expanded by 25,000 sf.

The park was originally developed by Trammell Crow from 1987 to 1991. Kris J. Cooper, a senior director with Cushman & Wakefield’s Atlanta office, and colleague Reynolds Couch brokered the deal. Rental rates in the Woodlands average $16.85 per sf. Cooper tells GlobeSt.com deals being done currently in the Jackson area are at $17.50 to $18.00 per sf.

“Jackson is a good, steady market, but it is not a spec market,” Cooper says. Cushman & Wakefield was brought in to recommend and handle the disposition of Crocker’s Southeast office property portfolio, valued at about $600 million.

C&W at first recommended the Crocker holdings be disposed of individually rather than as a portfolio. A portfolio offer, excluding Jackson, was made. It fell through, however. Meanwhile, the Woodlands deal was in the works and was completed.