CPN - March 2009 - (Page 13) ATLANTA MARKET PROFILE MARKET INTELLIGENCE The Sembler Co’s Canton Marketplace is scheduled to open in Georgia this spring. Bed, Bath & Beyond stepped up to fill space that Linens ’n Things, now out of business, had pre-leased. Target and other big-box stores will also co-anchor the center. get a deal done in the high single digits.This is a five-year deal that eventually increases the rent to a level we would have received in 2000.” Owners now focus more on keeping their centers full than pushing rents. “Our priority is definitely occupancy,” said Andre Koleszar, vice president & regional officer overseeing Regency Centers Corp.’s Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee properties. The REIT’s portfolio, which encompasses primarily groceryanchored centers, has sustained its occupancy at 93 percent, but the firm is receiving an increased number of rent-reduction requests from its tenants, Koleszar reported. Regency Centers is not unique in that regard. Retail tenants of all Continued on page 14 ® For coverage of other markets, visit www.cpnonline.com/regions. years. In fact, Reis does not expect demand to equal new supply for any year until 2011. LOSING GROUND Considering the demand and vacancy pitfalls,it is no surprise that rental rates are flat or declining. Average asking rates for Atlanta community and neighborhood center space dipped 0.1 percent from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008, according to Reis. In some parts of the city and in some types of shopping centers, they have decreased by as much as 5 percent, according to Greg Maloney, president & CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle Retail. Experts reported that the city has not seen such weak rent performance since the early 1990s.“It’s (as if) everything that happened during the dot-com boom and the earlier part of this decade never occurred,” said Jon Barry, president of Colliers Spectrum Cauble Realty, which manages a portfolio of 5 million square feet located primarily in the metropolitan area. He recently represented the landlord in a lease negotiation for space in a well-located lifestyle center along Interstate 85. The property previously commanded rent in the mid-teens, and the prospective tenant, a baby furniture retailer, was downsizing from 15,000 square feet to 10,000.“This tenant said he couldn’t afford the rent he was paying any longer because the typical ticket for a nursery was $7,000 two years ago but now (goes for) $2,000 to $3,000,” Barry explained.“(Now) the landlord is salivating and frothing to www.cpnonline.com • March 2009 • Commercial Property News 13 http://www.cpnonline.com/regions http://www.buchananstreet.com http://www.buchananstreet.com http://www.cpnonline.com
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