An affiliate of real estate private equity giant Apollo Real Estate Advisors has paid $196 million for more than a dozen suburban Atlanta office buildings. The 15-building, 1.7 million sq. ft. portfolio was owned by office REIT CarrAmerica Realty Corp. The sale price translates into roughly $12 million per office building, and the deal’s hefty square footage marks it one of the largest office transactions in Atlanta this year. The combined vacancy on the portfolio is roughly 80%, according to CarrAmerica.
"The sale of CarrAmerica's suburban Atlanta portfolio demonstrates our continued focus on our core markets as we allocate the capital from this portfolio into new investments in those markets,” says CarrAmerica Chief Investment Officer Karen Dorigan
The office buildings are located in three suburban Atlanta submarkets: Central Perimeter, Peachtree Corners and Northwest/I-75. The largest single concentration of office space — 724,000 sq. ft. — is located in the Perimeter district.
“This portfolio fits squarely into our investment strategy of buying quality assets located in major markets where we have both good current income and solid appreciation potential,” says James Ryan, CEO of Ryan Advisors. Ryan’s firm bought the portfolio on behalf of Apollo.
VEF Advisors’ Chief Investment Officer Howard Huang projects that the Atlanta economy will benefit from a strong job market in the coming years. “We see this transaction as an opportune time to invest in Atlanta,” says Huang.