Atlanta’s office rental rates reached new highs late last year, and it wasn’t only Class A properties in core submarkets that benefited.
Take Mansell Court, an old-school, Class B single-story office park in Roswell in Atlanta’s North Fulton submarket. Its ilk usually is passed over when Atlanta’s office market heats up every 10 years or so.
But this time around, even as glistening new buildings popped up at nearby Avalon and Edison Dr., Mansell Court is riding the rising tide they helped create.
Occupancy at the five-building, 188,478-square-foot complex near Mansell Rd. and Westside Pky. jumped to 85 percent in the past 12 months, up from 54 percent. Rental rates increased more than 50 percent to $13 per square foot triple net during the same period, according to CBRE, whose team of Heather Lamb and Parker Nelson represent the landlord.
Fueled by Midtown- and Buckhead-type asking rents at the Avalon mixed-use development, North Fulton’s office rents jumped 5.2 percent in the past 12 months, according to CoStar research. That’s four times higher than the submarket’s typical annual rent growth of 1.2 percent.
Mansell Court has kept pace with Class A office rental growth thanks to a renovation led by new owner Grover Corlew LLC. G&C Mansell Investors LLC, an affiliate of Florida investment group Grover Corlew, acquired Mansell Court for $12.3 million in January 2017. “We purchased Mansell Court because we saw an unrealized potential for the office buildings, located in burgeoning North Fulton, an upscale submarket of Atlanta.” Grover Corlew partner Anuj Grover said.
The rehab of the 1987 office park included converting some of its traditional suburban offices to cool loft suites craved by millennials and technology, advertising, media and information (TAMI) tenants.
Since the renovation, Mansell Court has attracted several new tenants, including Merge ATL, a marketing communications firm for healthcare companies. Merge, formerly known as Dodge Communications, leased 15,558 square feet in 10 Mansell Court, and joins consumer service and engagement provider Aventus, which leased 16,926 square feet. At adjacent 20 Mansell Court, court reporting agency Veritext took 9,781 square feet.
Based on the success at Mansell Court, CBRE’s Lamb tells CoStar News she expects to see more owners rehab and reimagine older buildings by creating loft spaces. As for the North Fulton submarket, she sees no slowdown in sight.
“Avalon and its amenities have certainly boosted demand in Alpharetta,” Lamb said. “But strong office fundamentals were there prior to Avalon.”
