Exel Signs 463,690-SF Lease for Estimated $13M

ATLANTA-Southpark, a 14-year-old, four-building, 1.2-million-sf M.D. Hodges Enterprise Inc.’s business center on the city’s south side, is at 90% occupancy today after Berkshire, England-based Exel Inc. signed a 10-year and a five-year lease for a total 463,690 sf at an estimated aggregate rent of $13 million.

M.D. Hodges principals couldn’t be reached at GlobeSt.com’s publication deadline. But area industrial brokers familiar with the Fayetteville Road-Interstate 85 submarket tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the asking average rent is $4 per sf for comparable space.

Exel is taking 289,106 sf at 4800 Coates Drive for five years and 174,584 sf at 5010-B Terminus Drive for 10 years. Southpark is located at 505 Fayetteville Road near I-85.

Exel plans to use the Terminus Drive site for distributing PPG Industries paint products. The Coates Drive location will be used for warehousing and distributing Scotts lawn and garden products.

Exel has average annual revenue of $6.5 billion and employees 60,000 in 1,300 locations in 120 countries, according to the company’s Web site. Exel’s U.S. headquarters is at Westerville, OH.

The 42-year-old M.D. Hodges organization has a wholly owned portfolio of 12.5 million at 14 locations in metro Atlanta and 1,000 acres of prime, build-to-suite sites for office, industrial, hotel and retail.

M.D. Hodges is affiliated with New York-based Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, a global real estate investment and management firm with a portfolio valued at $6.8 billion through three private equity funds sponsored by the Blackstone Group LP.