Bisnow

Date: Monday, October 24, 2011

Even as metro Atlanta’s office skyline is wallowing in a 20%-plus vacancy rate, and job growth still largely escapes the region (not to mention the Braves collapse), two powerful developers—Legacy Property Group and Seven Oaks—announced plans this week to build a 350k SF Class-A project along one of the city’s oldest corridors.

Yesterday, we chatted with Legacy’s David Marvin (with Seven Oaks’ Randy Holmes and Legacy’s Matt Mason) at a popular CRE event across the street from their site. David tell us Seven Oaks was brought on to capture that anchor tenant. Seven Oaks has the know-how: Its founder, Bob Voyles, is an alumnus from Hines Interests and was responsible for getting Midtown’s iconic 1180 Peachtree developed in the earlier part of this decade. The project, called 285 Marietta, will also include 75k SF of street-level retail and a Times Square-esque electronic billboard across the lower third of the tower.

The site (owned by Legacy) is currently a parking lot; it’s across from CNN and the soon-to-be-developed College Football Hall of Fame. Plus, the developers plan to expand an Embassy Suites hotel and connect it to 285 Marietta. Right now, this is a theoretical exercise for Legacy and Seven Oaks. The developers need to prelease at least 75% to begin the project where asking rents are more than $25/SF for similar first gen towers in nearby submarkets.