LINDBERGH SOARS
But the Lindbergh City Center development isn’t the only show in town. Across the street, at Sidney Marcus Boulevard and Piedmont Road, the Lindbergh Plaza shopping center has returned to prominence. The Sembler Co., a retail developer based in St. Petersburg, Fla., renovated the old strip center to include big-box tenants like The Home Depot, Target, Best Bu y, and Linens-n-Things. Just around the corner, the Lindbergh Plaza’s next phase will offer luxury apartments and 15,000 square feet of ground-floors hops. Fronting Piedmont Road, Lindbergh Vista, a 314-unit community by Atlanta’s Vista Realty Partners, will be a short walk from the rail station at Lindbergh City Center. When construction finishes later in the year, the property will feature one- and two-bedroom units, about a dozen live/work units, an adjoining parking garage, and a rooftop pool and patio. With the Lindbergh City Center and Lindbergh Plaza projects taking shape, a new development is emerging near the corner of Piedmont Road and Lindbergh Way. Bulldozers have demolished several defunct 1940s-and 1950s-era apartment communities on a 26-acre site to make room for yet another Harold A. Dawson Co. and Lane Co. partnered project. More than 1,000 new multifamily units are planned, including apartments, con-dos, and townhomes. Actual unit construction is likely to commence later in 2007. Not far away, the Cosmopolitan at Lindbergh, a 244-unit luxury condo community, recently came on line.
ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTIES While Atlanta’s apartment occupancy rate appears likely to inch ahead in 2007, there doesn’t appear to be enough demand momentum to duplicate the big push seen between 2004 and 2006. Influencing this outlook, economic growth is slowing a little, and the metro faces some big layoffs from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors, both scheduled to shutter their Atlanta area assembly plants. Furthermore, at least a little downsizing will result from AT&T’s purchase of BellSouth, and Delta Airlines—one of the metro’s largest employers—still is on shaky financial ground. However, Atlanta remains one of the country’s key economic engines, and any near-term economic struggles should be just a blip on the radar screen.
A bigger question for the apartment market’s outlook may be how quickly new construction accelerates now as the focus shifts from condos to apartments. Entering 2007, ongoing apartment construction was on the rise again, with almost 7,100 units in process and a slew of additional developments identifiable on the drawing board.
But don’t look for construction to reach its historical highs right away. In comparison to the suburban garden-style properties that fueled previous construction booms, the infill product that is the focus of current development takes longer to build. Also, since these urban additions often are coming in on redev pment sites and replacing obsolete properties, total inventory growth actually is considerably smaller than the new supply figure.
Joseph Clements is the managing editor at Dallas based M/PF YieldStar.
MFE DOZEN:
Asheville, N.C. (January) Southern charm wins big
Chicago (February) Good news for the Windy City
Atlanta (March) Peachy deals crop up
Washington, D.C. (April) Capital efforts pay off
Denver (May) Multifamily goes mile-high
San Jose (June) Golden opportunities abound
Minneapolis (July) New constructions in the Twin Cities
New Orleans (August) The Big Easy rebuilds
Providence (September) Promising developments in the Northeast
Dallas (October) Herding up new projects
Indianapolis (November) The heartland keeps ticking
Manhattan (December) The market that never sleeps
MFE FAST FACTS
Considering Atlanta? Here’s what you need to know:
- Population: 5.1 million
- Occupancy: 94.1% (December 2006)
- Median Age: 32 years
- Median Household Income: $34,770
- Average Rent: $780 (December 2006)
- Unemployment: 4.2% (November 2006)
NOTABLE: Atlanta is home to 15 Fortune 500 companies. In 2006, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport logged just over 976,300 flights, ranking as the nation’s busiest airport for the second year in a row. Opening in late 2005, the 505,000-square-foot Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta has been billed as the world’s largest aquarium, with its largest tank holding an incredible 6.2 million gallons of water.