Equity Office Signs ER Solutions to 47,386-SF Lease

ATLANTA-Chicago-based Equities Office Properties Trust has brought its six-story, 130,175-sf 219 Perimeter Center office building to 83% occupancy with the signing of a 47,386-sf lease with ER Solutions. The firm is owned by locally based Convergent Resources Inc., one of the largest account receivables management companies in the US.

An Equity Office representative declined to disclose the length and value of the lease and the average asking base rent range at the class B building. However, area brokers intimate with the 27-million-sf Central Perimeter office submarket tell GlobeSt.com the lease is probably for at least five years at an estimated value of $4 million. Locally based Colliers Cauble & Co. research shows the average rent in Central Perimeter’s 8.4-million-sf class B market is $16.79 per sf.

ER Solutions is relocating its 350-employee customer service center from the nearby One Ravinia building to the second and third floors of 219 Perimeter Center, Peter Picciocca, chief operating officer of Convergent Resources, says in a prepared statement.

Picciocca says his company scouted the Central Perimeter market before deciding on the Equity Office-owned building. “The existing infrastructure and contiguous space layout of 219 Perimeter provides operational efficiencies that we require to streamline the operations of our customer service center.”

While not disclosing details on the lease’s financials, Don Huffner, senior vice president of Equity Office’s Atlanta region, says the transaction offered “an attractive leasing solution that helped retain the company in the [Central Perimeter] submarket.” Huffner adds, “The deal represents the growing leasing momentum in the Central Perimeter since the beginning of the year. We’re seeing larger customers emerge and sign space before the opportunity to find ‘value’ diminishes.”

Equity Office has owned 219 Perimeter Center for eight years. The six-tenant building was renovated in 1999. Bill Hollett, vice president of leasing, and leasing representative Aileen Almassy negotiated for Equity Office. CB Richard Ellis Inc. brokers Anne Lofye, Sam Holmes and John Shlesinger represented ER Solutions.