Sun Belt heads to office re-set as Eakin Partners lists development

Put Nashville on the list of Sun Belt metros that appear to be underway on a reset of office markets. 

And count Eakin Partners down as a trend setter.

The firm has tapped Cushman & Wakefield to sell its 280,000-square-foot Peabody Plaza, at 10 Lea Avenue, in the nascent South Bank district near the downtown riverfront, the Nashville Business Journal reported. 

It would be the latest in a string of office properties to trade the city in recent months, and the second sale by Eakin Partners, among Nashville’s best known office developers. Eakin Partners executives declined to comment on the listing.

Nashville notched its slowest sales of commercial properties in a decade last year, with 424 deals accounting for $2.8 billion, an average of $67 million per transaction, according to Metro Research.

The average appears to have shifted upward since the $84.5 million sale of the Truist Plaza in April, which was followed a month later by Host Hotels Resorts’ $530 million acquisition of 1 Hotel and Embassy Suites.

Also on the market is the Fifth Third Center, the third-largest office building in downtown Nashville, at 650,000 square feet. An affiliate of New York-based Blackstone is selling the 31-story tower, which it bought for $145 million in 2019.

Eakin Partners hasn’t disclosed an asking price for Peabody Plaza, which it developed and has managed since its completion in 2020. The firm is led by John Eakin and Barry Smith, and the firm also counts 1201 Demonbreun in the Gulch district and Roundabout Plaza in Midtown in its portfolio.

Eakin Partners earlier this year cashed out Truist Plaza, which it had owned since 2008. The 340,000-square-foot office building sold to Silicon Valley-based Menlo Equities, about $250 per square foot.

The nine-story Peabody Plaza, meanwhile, is squarely amid a nascent commercial scene, with several big developments nearby, including Peabody Union from local developer Ray Hensler. 

Peabody Plaza is about 80 percent leased, according to marketing materials, with a roster of 13 tenants, including Concord Music and Fourth Capital.

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