Dealmaker: Atlanta Office Tower Trades for $205M

Investment firm KKR, New York, and Banyan Street Capital, Miami, acquired Salesforce Tower in Atlanta for $205 million.

Named for its primary tenant, Salesforce Tower is a 631,800-square-foot, 34-story Class A office tower in Atlanta’s Buckhead submarket, one of the Southeast’s strongest office submarkets. Other tenants include RentPath and Rubicon Global’s corporate headquarters.

The property recently received $14 million in upgrades and renovations. The new venture plans $5 million in capital improvements to improve the fitness center, retail concourse, outdoor plaza and tenant elevator landings and corridors.

KKR made the investment through its Real Estate Partners Americas Fund II, buying out Banyan Street Capital’s prior JV partner, Oaktree Capital Management.

A CBRE team that included Senior Vice President Jonathan Rice, Executive Vice President Tom Traynor and Vice President C.J. Kelly arranged the acquisition financing

KKR Member and Head of Commercial Real Estate Acquisitions Roger Morales called his firm a long-term believer in Atlanta’s growth. “We believe Atlanta’s young and educated workforce and affordable cost of doing business will lead to continued outsized performance, particularly in infill, highly amenitized, increasingly 24-hour submarkets like Buckhead,” he said.

Buckhead will see nearly 1,500 new upscale residential units scheduled to deliver shortly as well as a new six-acre park. Actor Robert DeNiro and partners expect to open a new Nobu Hotel and Nobu Atlanta restaurant near Salesforce Tower. Several other large firms including including Amazon.com and Fleetcor Technologies plan to move to Buckhead; Fleetcor announced it will relocate its headquarters into the submarket.