Terminus 200 lands office tenant
Cousins Properties has signed Firethorn Holdings to the first lease in its Terminus 200 25-story office building, under construction at the mixed-use Terminus development at Peachtree and Piedmont roads in Buckhead.
Claiming the 50,000-square-foot lease to be a significant victory in the competitive Buckhead market, Cousins CEO and Chairman Tom Bell said, “We are very excited to have Firethorn choose Terminus 200. Having a breakthrough technology company like Firethorn as our first tenant sets a great standard for the building. We look forward to building on this momentum as we get closer to delivery later this year.”
“We are excited about the relocation of our corporate headquarters to Terminus 200,” said Tripp Rackley, the chief executive officer of Firethorn. “Terminus will provide our employees with a great location and an unparalleled amenity base for years to come.”
Rackley added: “The team at Cousins worked hard to construct a financial structure that met the needs of our organization.”
The 10-acre Terminus development includes the fully leased, 656,000-square-foot Terminus 100 office building and 10 Terminus Place, the first Terminus residential tower. Terminus 200 is a joint venture of Cousins and Prudential Real Estate Investors.
Insurer holds off on Two Alliance Center lease
Munich American Reassurance Co., a subsidiary of Munich Re AG, apparently has indefinitely put on hold a lease for office space at Tishman Speyer Inc.’s Two Alliance Center, a 20-story building under construction at Ga. 400 and Lenox Road.
Munich American’s decision to wait on a lease apparently was prompted by the weakened global economy and credit crunch and by the higher lease rate the company would pay at the Buckhead site than it now pays at Barry Real Estate’s 56 Perimeter Center.
Munich leases 60,000 square feet at its Central Perimeter offices but wants to expand, and 56 Perimeter Center apparently doesn’t offer that opportunity.
Tishman Speyer is still considered the most likely to land Munich American, but Buckhead has four office towers under construction. Another landlord might offer a better deal as rent concessions increase.
Two Alliance Center is Tishman’s second Buckhead office building.
Another condo developer to auction units
Forty condominium units at The Cosmopolitan, a development of Hollywood, Fla.-based Morris J. Kaplan Communities at 711 Cosmopolitan Drive, off Piedmont Road in the Lindbergh area of Buckhead, are scheduled to be auctioned off May 17.
The auction will be held at the Westin Buckhead, 3391 Peachtree Road. The minimum bid will be $105,000 for a one-bedroom unit of approximately 850 square feet.
The Cosmopolitan joins a growing list of developments using auctions to move multiple units in a matter of hours. Boston-based Accelerated Marketing Partners, which will handle the auction, has been involved with auctions of several other condominium units in Atlanta recently, including Element at Atlantic Station, Sterling of Dunwoody and Promenade at NorthPlace in Sandy Springs.
Aaron Rents changes name for branding
Buckhead-based Aaron Rents Inc. has changed its name to Aaron’s Inc. and has changed its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol from “RNT” to “AAN.”
“Aaron’s is creating consistent brand messaging by bringing the corporate name in line with the trade name of our over 1,575 stores,” said Aaron’s President and CEO Robert C. Loudermilk Jr.