DRA Advisors Sells Metro Atlanta Office Park

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

University Office Park in Chamblee, Ga.

University Office Park, a 78-acre property with 21 mid- and low-rise office buildings in Chamblee, Ga., has changed hands. DRA Advisors sold the asset to an unidentified Atlanta-based investment group, CBRE announced. The transaction’s value was not disclosed.

CBRE both arranged the sale on behalf of DRA and will retain leasing and management responsibilities for the office park. CBRE’s Justin Parsonnet, Will Yowell, Jay O’Meara and Ryan Reethof represented DRA Advisors.

The park is in DeKalb County and along metro Atlanta’s I-85 corridor, near the intersection with Chamblee Tucker Road and close to DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. University Office Park offers significant frontage and signage opportunities along I-85, as well as proximity to intown residential neighborhoods.

DRA Advisors had owned the park for more than a decade and recently signed IT services firm WiPro Ltd. to the tenant roster. The property is anchored by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.

CBRE noted that Atlanta’s Northeast corridor has seen significant redevelopment in the last few years, including the Integral Group’s transformation of the former General Motors plant into the Assembly, Emory University’s and Children’s Healthcare’s redevelopment of the eastern portion of the I-85/North Druid Hills interchange into a regional medical center anchored by a new $1.3 billion hospital.

“This is an area that is undergoing considerable redevelopment activity while maintaining the presence of such long-term stakeholders as the Centers for Disease Control, IRS and Department of Defense. It’s a growth corridor and host to Atlanta’s next wave of major redevelopment, as more traditionally defined neighborhoods and office submarkets are becoming denser,” CBRE Executive Vice President Justin Parsonnet said in a prepared statement.

A market holding steady 

The Atlanta office market in the third quarter was “uninspiring,” with little net absorption (despite a substantial number of moves) and only one significant delivery, according to a report by Colliers International. The overall vacancy remains at 13.9 percent, not far from the figure in 2008.

The Northlake submarket is broadly within that situation, having seen a modest amount of negative net absorption in the third quarter on an inventory of 17.3 million square feet. Average occupancy there was 86.3 percent.

Image courtesy of CBRE