ATLANTA—While large portions of the U.S. are feeling the squeezeof low cap rates, Southeast net lease is on a hot streak, andnowhere is that more evident than in Atlanta. So says JoeyOdom, regional director of Stan JohnsonCo.'s office here. We met up with this 2014 RealEstate Forum "Fifty Under 40" recipient to get his reading on the currentnet lease retail environment, as well as what he's looking for in2015.

GlobeSt.com: How would you describe the state of thenet lease retail market nationally and in theSoutheast?

Joey Odom: The theme remains thesame, with cap rates at historic lows due to the imbalance ofdemand over supply. While interest rates certainly play a role,supply and demand still rule the day. Case in point: when the10-year treasury moved up 100+ basis points in just a few months inmid-2013, cap rates held firm and even compressed in many cases.The low amount of supply has forced many buyers to adjustacquisition criteria, for example, by buying shorter term leases,tertiary markets. As a benchmark, we are seeing 15-year Walgreensdeals trading at cap rates 50+ basis points lower than where25-year Walgreens were trading in 2007, when cap rates were at athen-historical low. The X factor in this equation will be howactive the large net lease buyers—the “market makers”—are in 2015.Assuming those acquisition appetites are still large, it would bereasonable to expect cap rates remaining in the same range.