Transwestern, Mirae, State Farm Close ATL Sale-Leaseback

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Park Center I

A partnership between an affiliate of Transwestern Investment Group and Seoul, South Korea–based Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. has completed the acquisition of a 591,000-square-foot Class A Atlanta building in a sale-leaseback with State Farm Auto Insurance Co.

“This acquisition will provide stable cash flows generated from the long-term lease with State Farm, an investment-grade tenant. The ownership entity was designed to provide benefits to the tenant through stable, long-term ownership and management,” Laurie Dotter, president of Transwestern Corporate Properties, said in a prepared statement.

The building is Park Center I, the first of three planned buildings that KDC is developing at its 1.7-million-square-foot Park Center campus in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket, adjacent to the new Dunwoody MARTA station.

The 13-story Park Center I is LEED certified and sits on a seven-level parking structure with ground-floor retail. The below-grade parking structure also gives direct access to the two further buildings in the complex, which are currently under construction.

“Park Center I, a core office backed with a credit tenant, is consistent with our investment strategy to achieve stable, long-term cash flow for our clients,” added From Chang Hoon Choi, head of Mirae’s Real Estate Business Unit.

The TIG/Mirae partnership, Corporate Properties Trust II LP, will own the properties through a REIT, and the investment will be managed by a wholly owned subsidiary of TIG.

The legal adviser was King & Spalding, the debt capital adviser was Eastdil Secured and the tax adviser was EY.

Past endeavors

This transaction follows the even bigger sale-leaseback last October of the four-building, 2.2 million-square-foot State Farm campus in Dallas’ 186-acre CityLine mixed-use project.

Though the parties declined to disclose the financials on that deal last fall, reporting by Commercial Property Executive pegged the dollar amount at north of $800 million, likely a Dallas–Fort Worth record transaction.