Regions Bank Stays Put in Atlanta With 100 KSF Lease Renewal

Regions Plaza Atlanta. Image courtesy of PGIM Real Estate

PGIM Real Estate has signed longtime tenant Regions Bank to a lease agreement that will keep the financial institution in its current home at Regions Plaza in Midtown Atlanta for an additional 14 years. Regions Bank, which occupies just over 100,900 square feet of space at the property, will also continue to have its name grace the crown of the 500,000-square-foot, 24-story tower.

Located on a nearly 2-acre site at 1180 W. Peachtree St., Regions Plaza first opened its doors in 2001 as Atlantic Center Plaza. In 2011, Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Bank inked a lease for approximately 80,000 square feet at the Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates-designed property, which, a few years later, took on the moniker of Regions Plaza. Fast-forward to 2017, PGIM acquired Regions Plaza from Crocker Partners, now CP Group, for $176 million in one of Atlanta’s largest office deals of that year.

Kevin Driver and Steve DeVinney of Stream Realty Partners, which handles leasing for Regions Plaza on behalf of PGIM, represented the ownership in the transaction with Regions Bank. ICON Commercial Interests’ Jimmy Sanders, Mitch Kahlert, and Harry DeAntonio negotiated for the tenant. Along with the Class AA office space, Regions Bank has a full-service bank location on-site and employees have access to the LEED- and Fitwel-certified property’s long list of amenities, which includes a fitness facility, café and conference options.

Something about Midtown

Atlanta’s office sector continues to struggle with shaking off the damaging consequences of the pandemic. Some of the small victories can be attributed to Midtown. According to a report by Cushman & Wakefield: “As the pace of new vacancies hitting the market slowed substantially during the first quarter, central business district vacancy dropped a modest 10 basis points quarter-over-quarter. This decrease was primarily driven by Midtown, which was the only submarket in Metro Atlanta to kick off 2022 with a quarterly vacancy improvement.”

Additionally, Midtown was one of only three of Atlanta’s nine submarkets to post positive net absorption in the first quarter and led the market in this critical benchmark with nearly 160,000 square feet in overall net absorption, writes the Cushman & Wakefield report. Midtown was also at the top in leasing activity with nearly 314,000 square feet of new leases signed in the first quarter of 2022.