TIAA-CREF, Prudential Bidding for Two High-Profile Office Assets

ATLANTA-New York-based TIAA-CREF, affiliates of Prudential and several pensions funds and global investors are in a quiet bidding war for two of the area’s newest and highest-profile office buildings, people in positions to know tell GlobeSt.com. Offering prices are said to be in the $400-per-sf range which would be a record for class A office assets in the metro area.

The trophy properties are the $75-million, 500,000-sf 171-17th Street Building. The 22-story, 94%-leased property is within the 138-acre, $2-billion Atlantic Station mixed-use redevelopment in Midtown. The other is the $50-million, 260,000-sf 30 Allen Plaza. The 15-story, 96-leased property is within the planned three-building, 1.2-million-sf Allen Plaza Downtown.

Representatives for owners of the two buildings couldn’t be reached by GlobeSt.com’s publication deadline to learn how far along the bidding has gone. New York-based AIG Global Real Estate Investment Group and Locally based Jacoby Development Inc. are the joint venture developers of Atlantic Station. Locally based Barry Real Estate Cos. is developing Allen Plaza.

Sources familiar with both properties and in the loop of local commercial building sales tell GlobeSt.com one or both of the buildings could be sold by year end. The highest per-sf recorded price for a local class A office building occurred last year with the $145-million, $342.78-per-sf sale of the 98%-leased, 423,000-sf Pinnacle Building in Buckhead, as GlobeSt.com reported Aug. 3, 2004. TIAA-CREF bought the Pinnacle from locally based Cousins Properties Inc.

Other class A office buildings that generated high per-sf prices over the last two years, according to GlobeSt.com research, were One Atlantic Center, Midtown, $300 million or $273 per sf, 1989; One Glenlake, suburban Sandy Springs, $82 million or $233 per sf, 2004; Atlantic Center Plaza, Midtown, $116 million or $232 per sf, 2004; and the Proscenium building, Midtown, $118 million or $224 per sf, 2003.