JLL arranges $421.8M refinancing for Atlanta’s Piedmont Center

ATLANTA, August 5, 2021 – JLL announced today that its Capital Markets group arranged a $421.8 million financing for Piedmont Center, a 14-building, 2.2 million-square-foot, Class A office complex in Atlanta, Georgia.

JLL worked on behalf of the borrower, The Ardent Companies, to secure the floating-rate loan.  Proceeds were used to refinance the debt of Ardent’s existing holdings within Piedmont Center plus the acquisition of four additional buildings within the office complex.

Piedmont Center is located on 45.5 acres at 3495-3575 Piedmont Rd. NE in the affluent Buckhead submarket. Buckhead is just four miles north of Midtown Atlanta and offers diverse amenities, including world class shopping, museums, art galleries and recreation venues. The area is served by major thoroughfares such as Georgia 400, Lenox, Peachtree and Roswell Roads as well as a Marta station providing service throughout the Atlanta area.

Built in various stages between 1977 and 1998, Piedmont Center recently underwent renovations to its exterior and amenity areas with additional improvements planned over the next few years. The diverse tenant roster across the portfolio includes firms in the high-growth industries of healthcare, technology and professional services. 

JLL’s Capital Markets team representing the borrower was led by Senior Managing Director Ed Coco and Senior Director Matt Casey.

Additionally, JLL’s brokerage team led by Jeff Taylor and David Horne won the assignment to lease Buildings 5-8.

“Through its consolidation of ownership within Piedmont Center, Ardent has created a huge opportunity to reinvent the office campus into a more dynamic workplace setting with greater mixed-use amenities and an environment desired in today’s market,” Coco said. “We look forward to seeing the transformation in the years ahead.”

“With this purchase, we continue to demonstrate our opportunistic investment strategy while leveraging our relationships to secure capital,” said Scott Werbel, Managing Director at Ardent. “This deal underscores Ardent’s commitment to the office sector in our key markets, and we will continue to look for these opportunities as we expand our geographic footprint further.”

According to JLL’s Second Quarter Office Outlook, the U.S. office market is stabilizing and overall transaction volume rose by 28.7 percent in second quarter as tenants begin to execute long-awaited deals. In growth markets leasing is now 10 percent higher over the year, and in markets such as Atlanta, office leasing has recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

JLL’s Capital Markets group is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment advisory, debt placement, equity placement or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,700 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

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