An affiliate of Wyatt Capital, LLC (“Wyatt”) acquired 1483 Chattahoochee Avenue in August 2017 for $3.2 MM in an off market transaction. The building is a 20,000 sf brick warehouse situated on 2 acres located on the pin corner of Collier Road and Chattahoochee Avenue in the Upper Westside submarket and provides a 4/1000 parking ratio. The building had been previously converted years earlier from its original distribution warehouse use to retail showroom space. The building was 100% leased and occupied by recession era tenants who were paying drastically below current market rates with very minimal lease term remaining and without any renewal option rights in their leases.
The investment thesis was to acquire the property with the intent to mark to market the existing tenant’s leases upon each lease expiration and/or replace those tenants with new tenants and relet the property at market rates. The thesis included a budget for base building improvements (inclusive of a public art project on a highly visible retaining wall at the intersection) to improve and enhance the curb appeal of the asset and attract new tenants at higher rates.
Within less than 2 years after acquisition and prior to any substantial further investment, Wyatt sold the building to an institutional investor for $5 MM.
Annualized project level returns for this investment were 27.75% with an equity multiple of 1.67X.