Wells Signs BlueLinx to Estimated $65M Lease Renewal

A Wells representative couldn't provide GlobeSt.com with the aggregate value of the lease deal. However, area brokers familiar with the northwest Atlanta properties near the Interstate 285-75 perimeter loop tell GlobeSt.com the effective rent was probably $20 per sf. That would make the estimated aggregate value of the lease $65 million. Locally based Richard Bowers & Co. research places the average asking rent in the I-75-I 285 corridor at $20.13 per sf.

The $65-million transaction would also make it one of the largest office deals completed this year in the metro area, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Don Henry, managing director of asset management for Wells Real Estate Funds, says in a prepared statement the lease deal "will provide extended value to our shareholders."

BlueLinx's previous 15-year lease would have expired Jan. 31, 2012. The new lease starts in January 2006 and ends Jan. 31, 2019. BlueLinx could have terminated its old lease in 2007 by paying Wells an unspecified cancellation penalty fee, according to Wells' statement. Patti Morris and Jerry Banks of Wells Real Estate Funds represented Wells. Duncan Gibbs and Chris Wagner of Staubach Co. negotiated for BlueLinx.

The other two buildings Wells acquired in the 2004 purchase from Cousins were 2500 Windy Ridge Parkway, a multi-tenant, 15-story, 317,000-sf building constructed in 1985; and 4200 Wildwood Parkway, a multi-tenant, six-story, 265,000-sf structure completed in 1998. The two buildings BlueLinx occupies fully at 4100 and 4300 Wildwood Parkway were built in 1995. 4100 has 100,000 sf in two stories; 4300 has 150,000 sf in three stories. Wells also occupies a 745,000-sf warehouse at 200 Hosea Road in suburban Lawrenceville.