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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE URBAN LAND INSTITUTE October 5-11, 2012 SPECIAL SECTION Page 25A Tapping resouces TAP teams wrestle development challenges By Martin Sinderman CONTRIBUTING WRITER roups dealing these communities come up with there are some projects done on a recommendations regarding development with real estate timely solutions.” pro bono basis. packages that identify the sites, program, development-related Potential TAP clients set things in motion The past year was a busy one for the expected goals, financing/ funding mecha- problems can tap by contacting the ULI Atlanta office. Once TAP program, Callahan reported, with a nisms, and other incentives to attract into an increasingly they are cleared for TAP treatment, they total of six TAPs undertaken. developers. popular source of receive the services of a ULI panel of These included one TAP where the The LCI study in Morrow dealt with assistance from subject-matter experts in fields such as Fulton Industrial Boulevard Community ideas regarding redevelopment of proper- the Urban Land development, urban design, city planning, Improvement District (CID) worked with ties that had been vacated by retailers over Institute. and/or other disciplines that deal with ULI Atlanta to obtain advice and the years, according to city of Morrow ULI’s Technical Assistance Program, commercial retail, office, industrial, recommendations on the revitalization Planning & Economic Development G or TAP, provides what it describes as residential and mixed land uses. and improved economic competitiveness Director Michael McLaughlin. “objective and responsible advice” to city, Panels are typically comprised of eight of the Fulton Industrial Boulevard Following the conceptual study, “We county, and community-based nonprofit members, and are assembled specifically to Corridor, as well as examine possible went to ULI’s TAP committee and organizations, particularly those with focus on the particular problems or issues strategies to re-envision the boulevard told them we now wanted to home in on limited resources or those operating in at hand. Following information gathering/ and Interstate 20 interchange area. specifics,” McLaughlin said. “We wanted economically depressed areas. The research done on the front end, the TAP In Morrow, a TAP team worked to hear what people active in the program is designed to address specific team spends one and a half to two days with the city government to determine development community had to say to issues such as project feasibility, planning, on-site, getting input from the public, mechanisms to implement recently us about the recommendations of the LCI, development, or implementation. community leaders, and other stakeholders. completed Livable Centers Initiative and how to go about implementing them.” The TAP serves a couple of purposes, From there, the team formulates a draft redevelopment study recommendations, The Fulton Industrial Boulevard TAP, according to Robert Newcomer, a business and, following review, a final report. The focusing on identifying specific parcels meanwhile, provides stakeholders with a law and litigation minimum fee for a TAP engagement is whose redevelopment would best spark plan for revitalizing an area that, while attorney with The Lang $10,000, according to Callahan, although further activity. Morrow also sought TAP having some image problems in the past, Legal Group LLC, and has great economic potential. outgoing chair of TAP. “With the establishment of a police “On a community precinct station, a courtroom, and a fire level, TAP represents station set to open up in October, we’re ULI Atlanta’s ‘thought starting to see positive changes in the leadership in action,’ ” area,” said David Stewart, project man- Newcomer Newcomer said. It ager, Community and Economic The Lang Legal does this by bringing Development, for Georgia Power Co. Group LLC together teams of ULI Building upon these changes will take a members, real estate determined effort by property owners, industry experts, and community leaders, members of the Fulton Industrial he said, “to explore creative solutions to Boulevard CID, and other stakeholders, challenging land use and real estate asset according to Stewart, “And I think the allocation and management issues, and TAP process will be a to advance ‘best in class’ policies and catalyst for making that practices.” happen, by engaging On an individual level, “TAP provides the parties that are the means by which ULI’s network of going to be taking the members can make a positive impact in lead after the final their community and in the region,” said report comes out.” Newcomer. Both Stewart and The TAP is unique in the resources it Stewart McLaughlin say the brings to the table — and the speed by Georgia Power Co. expertise provided by which it works — in a team of ULI subject- addressing real estate matter experts makes the TAP process conundrums, particularly productive. according to incoming “The TAP program brings together a TAP chair Constance good cross section of people who are Callahan, vice presi- ULI members from areas like land use, dent for SunTrust development and redevelopment,” said Community Capital, a Stewart. “In our case, we also had people Callahan unit of SunTrust Banks with experience in commercial and indus- SunTrust Inc. that provides trial real estate, chambers of commerce, Community Capital financing for low/mod- and logistics.” erate-income housing At the Morrow TAP, “We had a lender, a and other community development efforts. homebuilder, an office developer, the city “Our biggest asset is our ability to being of Alpharetta’s planning director, and the together top-rated, high-quality expertise head of the Perimeter CIDs — a wide from a variety of sources to address PHOTOS/SPECIAL variety of people,” said McLaughlin. development issues that confront On TAP: Both the city of Morrow and the Fulton Industrial Boulevard area are using “Putting all those different perspectives in communities,” said Callahan. “And we do resources from Urban Land Institute’s Technical Assistance Program to look at ways to one room makes the TAP a very creative this in a highly focused fashion, within a redevelop sites in those communities. TAP provides help with things like city planning, exercise, and provides a truly objective very compressed time frame, to help development and urban design. view of all the issues at hand.” Page 26A • October 5-11, 2012 COMMERCIALwww.atlantabusinesschronicle.com REAL ESTATE/URBAN LAND INSTITUTE ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE Gateway Center is hours from anywhere in U.S. By Nicole Bradford planes and trains, the hotels and office CONTRIBUTING WRITER component of the complex is designed as a Gateway Center or visitors to Atlanta, the city’s newest destination, and already has become such. Location: I-85 and Camp Creek completed multi-use development is Opened in 2004 and billed as the world’s Parkway, College Park, Ga. only a two minute zip away via the only convention center directly connected Scope: $250 million mixed-use project Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta F to a major airport, the Georgia consisting of a 400,000-square-foot International Airport’s Skytrain. International Convention Center is convention center, two hotels and the Eliminating the need for car owned an operated by the city of rentals or fares to access it, Gateway College Park, which has reaped Class A Gateway office building Center is a self contained village the benefits of progressive Developers: Grove Street Partners LLC, anchored by the 400,000-square-foot thinking in recent new private an Atlanta-based real estate devel- Georgia International Convention investments and growth. The opment firm, and the city of College Center, the 403-room Marriott airport is about 7 miles south of SPECIAL Park’s Industrial Development Authority Atlanta Airport Gateway, a WINNER Atlanta’s Central Business District 147-room SpringHill Suites Atlanta and is also ranked as the busiest in Airport and a Class A office ULI the U.S. by passenger traffic. airport Skytrain expansion that opened in building. The firm also helped provide DEVELOPMENT OF building. Construction of the office EXCELLENCE “This area by the airport is ripe 2009 as the first expansion of the airport’s master planning for the development and building and hotels was completed for redevelopment,” said Paul K. internal transit outside of Hartsfield- interior design on the Marriott Hotel and during 2009 and 2010. Van Slyke, partner with Atlanta-based Jackson. Future development includes SpringHill Suites. A public-private partnership between Goode Van Slyke Architects and one of additional office and retail. Both hotels and The phrase “aerotropolis” is often used Grove Street Partners LLC, an Atlanta- the project’s designers. “This is a real cata- the office building are LEED certified by to describe an urban plan based on the based real estate development firm, and lyst for other developments to occur. In the the U.S. Green Building Council. notion that airports are major drivers of the city of College Park, the Gateway world of development, usually someone is “It’s more diverse in its functions than development today, just as railroads and Center project is a winner of the Urban waiting for someone else to put most airport developments — a highways have led development in the past. Land Institute Atlanta’s Development of their toe in the water first.” lot of them are outdoor shopping The Gateway complex is about a quarter Excellence, an award that recognizes not Van Slyke’s firm was involved malls — this is very different mile from the airport, and only a few steps only the finished product but its lasting in the design of Gateway from that,” Van Slyke said. “It’s from the first station on the airport’s impacts over time — and positive effects Center’s SpringHill Suites, the now a dynamic work place with a Skytrain. The second stop is the consoli- on the surrounding area. first of its brand to reach a LEED convention center in the middle.” dated rental car center, located to the west.