National market report

National market report

CNN Center in downtown Atlanta
CNN Center in downtown Atlanta

Atlanta

Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of CNN, TNT and Cartoon Network, has floated plans to overhaul its real estate holdings, including improvements to its downtown CNN Center headquarters and an office complex called Techwood located in Midtown, the city’s second-largest business district, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The media giant is “evaluating” upgrades to its office and atrium mall at CNN Center, one of the city’s top tourist spots and a popular entryway into the the Atlanta Hawks’ basketball arena. The company’s real estate pivot comes as it has moved many jobs to New York and London and eliminated hundreds of others. But city stakeholders are optimistic. “There’s a lot of excitement and good things happening in this neighborhood,” said A.J. Robinson, president and chief executive of Central Atlanta Progress, an alliance of downtown businesses. Concurrent developments in the city include the construction of a new $1.5 football stadium, the home of the Falcons, which is due to open in 2017, and a new hotel at the Georgia World Congress Center. That arena is expected to undergo a renovation and the land around it may be revamped into a mixed-use entertainment district.

Chicago

Amid peaking property prices in Chicago, the Catholic Church has decided to cash in some of its valuable chips. The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has hired Eastdil Secured as an adviser to market a 90,000-square-foot parking lot in River North, a neighborhood north of the city’s center. The church is considering either an outright sale or a long-term lease of the property, which is used by Holy Name Cathedral and could be worth as much as $100 million. “There’s been an interest in this property for decades,” Betsy Bohlen, the Archdiocese’s chief operating officer, told the Wall Street Journal. The city has been undergoing a development boom. Last month, New York-based real estate company 601w Cos. closed on the purchase of a long-vacant old post office building as part of a $500 million redevelopment plan in the city’s West Loop, a neighborhood west of the city’s main business district. Meanwhile, Related Midwest has agreed to develop 62 acres of railroad land downtown. “It’s been this missing link, a hole in the center of Chicago,” Phil Enquist, an architect at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill who advised Related about the site, told the Chicago Tribune.

Dallas

Data centers — which house protected servers for data-hogging companies — are leasing and developing property all over the Dallas-Fort Worth region, drawn to the steady power supply, cheap water and tax breaks, the New York Times reported. The area is among the top five data center locations in the country, with a total of 2.8 million square feet. Among the high-profile investors, Facebook is building a $1 billion data center at an 18,000-acre project in northern Forth Worth. The Dallas suburb of Richardson is already home to 20 data centers, with four more in the pipeline in the next two years, while Garland, another town in the area, will soon be home to a million-square-foot complex by RagingWire Data Centers. The businesses, which do not advertise their whereabouts or clients for security reasons, are popular with investors because they provide a more predictable stream of revenue than residential real estate. Moreover, the facilities generate significant tax revenue for municipalities. “Each one of these data centers is a little gold mine cranking out wealth for the city,” said John Jacobs, executive vice president of Richardson’s chamber of commerce.

Facebook broke ground last summer in Fort Worth on a $1 billion data center.

Facebook broke ground last summer in Fort Worth on a $1 billion data center.

Buffalo

A pair of New York City-based joint-venture partners have agreed to buy Buffalo’s tallest building, One Seneca Tower, the Buffalo News reported. The price has not been disclosed but sources said the amount was $27 million. The prospective owners, Harvey Kaylie and David Nalbandyan, said they plan to spend $100 million to overhaul the 38-story building in downtown Buffalo into a mixed-use development that will include a shopping mall, restaurants, office space, 100 residential apartment units and perhaps a hotel. “We want to give new life to the whole area of downtown Buffalo,” Nalbandyan, the minority partner, told the paper. Buoyed by an influx of young renters and empty nesters, downtown has been undergoing a revitalization, adding 643 apartment units in the past five years. One Seneca is largely vacant and has been since late 2013, when its two largest tenants, HSBC Bank USA and law firm Philips Lytle, moved out. The deal is likely to close in June.

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Chicago

Vince Vaughn has cut the price for the fourth time on a five-bedroom, 11,600-square-foot penthouse in the Palmolive Building, listing it at $13.9 million, 7 percent less than in 2015. The “Wedding Crashers” and “Old School” actor has been trying to sell the Michigan Avenue home since 2011 and has hired a new agent to market the property. Five years ago, the comedian was asking $24.7 million. Vaughn paid $12 million for the triplex apartment in 2006. The top floor contains the office furniture from the old Playboy magazine headquarters.

A parking lot at Holy Name Cathedral is being marketed for sale.

A parking lot at Holy Name Cathedral is being marketed for sale.

Los Angeles

Fashion designer and film director Tom Ford has agreed to buy a 14,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills for $53 million, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing unnamed sources. The nine-bedroom, 10-bathroom home sits on 3.2 acres. Ford agreed to buy the sprawling estate in an off-market transaction. The property includes a guesthouse, a pool and a tennis court. It was sold by hotel developer Brad Korzen and designer Kelly Wearstler. It was owned for decades by James Bond producer Albert Broccoli.

Woodbury, Vermont

Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet has re-listed his 194-acre property in rural Vermont for $729,000. Originally priced at $849,000 in 2015, the listing had been off the market. The playwright wrote “Glengarry Glen Ross” in a cabin on the property. Mamet has owned the estate for over three decades and is selling because he now lives in Los Angeles. His daughter Zosia Mamet of the HBO series “Girls” grew up in the main 3,300-square-foot farmhouse, which has four bedrooms.

Orinda, California

NBA star Stephen Curry and his wife have listed their former home in Orinda, California, for $3.9 million. The athlete, who plays for the Golden State Warriors, and his family traded up to a larger spread in nearby Walnut Creek in 2015. The 0.7-acre-listed property includes a five-bedroom house, vineyard, outdoor kitchen and a putting green. Curry bought the estate in 2013 for $3.1 million.