The refinancing package replaces the original construction loan of $25 million from Fremont Investment & Loan of California in 1989. Bowers bought the former Coastal States building in 1999 for $8.8 million. His brokerage team has brought occupancy to 76% in a highly competitive Downtown office leasing market.
The Buckhead office of Minneapolis-based Northmarq Capital brokered the loan. Mike Shelly, executive vice president of Richard Bowers & Co. and the lead broker on the 260 Peachtree lease-up, helped put the refinancing package together.
"I find it disappointing that we hear so much about the high profile companies that are leaving Downtown for Midtown, yet we hear very little about the multitude of lower profile companies that are moving Downtown for economic and access reasons," says Bruce Foster, Northmarq's senior vice president.
He adds, "There are so many positive things happening in the Downtown market that it can no longer take a back seat to Buckhead and Midtown."
Terry Connors, Cohen Capital's Southeast regional director, says his firm had no reservations on the refinancing request. "What we saw in Downtown Atlanta is statistically better off than the whisper word would have it," Connors says. The 260 Peachtree building "and other Downtown space, for that matter, are well-positioned for small businesses that are looking for class A space with cache--those that want to be in the center of activity in the metro area."
Connors says his firm "feels some of the same factors that have led Downtown Chicago to substantial revitalization are under way in Atlanta." He says Downtown Atlanta is "much more stabilized than it was five years ago and we see it moving rapidly forward."
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