SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to Sun Belt Developers Podcast. I'm Tim Wright. I'm a broker at Cushman and Wakefield. Today I have Chris Ikos with CP Group here with us. Chris, I love the hoodie.

SPEAKER_03 0:10

I I love the it's by BAME Joiner. So he's part of this. That's perfect. He's part of the culture team here at the center. Um so we were huge fans and uh really think it's a big part of the real estate that we're creating here.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Um so I thought I'd wear it today. I thought it felt it felt appropriate.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

That's very, very appropriate. Um I just personally want to say thanks for letting us use the studio here and uh big shout out to CP Group and and the center. Come down and check it out. You all have it's like a couple weeks out. You're about to open up.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Yeah, I mean, I think I think one, we're thrilled that you're here. Um as I mentioned earlier, you know, this building being rooted in media, yeah. It feels right to have our first tenant in the office here be a media company. Yeah. So really excited about what you guys are doing. Um, huge fan of the podcast. It's um it's cool. And I think it's really uh it's really on brand, right? Like I think in a media building with a with a Titan like Ted Turner at the helm, yeah, ushering this into the next generation. And and yes, in a few weeks, uh in a few weeks we'll be opening. And we're super excited. I think um it's been five years of work to get to this point. Uh and World Cup's coming, and like a deadline makes things happen.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

It does. It does, yeah, for everything, for all the projects. Of course. It's been been a good banner. Um okay, so you've got I think there's like a roster of restaurants. There's like seven or eight that announced, and it's under the the works kind of food hall.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

So kind of the anchor tenant downstairs right now, and I was just talking to Bobby. Um, so it's Center Food Works. Um, it's um it's got 11 different food concepts. We've got two Michelin star chefs opening up concepts in that food hall. Really cool. We've got the big center bar, which is the largest bar in the state of Georgia, or so I've been told. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Um we'll have to throw a picture up.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

There's gonna be you gotta, it's you guys see it every day when you walk in the building. Yeah, yeah, and it's coming to life very quickly. It is. And uh it's fun. I mean, it's if Bobby, who owns it, is down there at working every day with the team. Like I was just walked in before I came up here, and all the storefront is just starting to go up. Like, you know, all the magic happens in the last like 60 days, right? It's like uh I think you know, in our office, there's a saying that that well, Ryan, who you know says it's you know, it always looks looks worse before it looks better. And you start construction, you just rip everything apart, and then at the end it all comes together. And so, like, man, we're sliding into home here, and uh and we're gonna make it and it's gonna be awesome. And uh love for you guys all to be there as it as we you know open the open it all back up to the world.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Yeah, yeah. Really excited. I we've been I guess y'all let us start using this space back in September. So when that was I mean, it was full demo back then, we'd be doing an episode and Jack Hammer's would be going on and it was uh Yeah, part part in our progress. Yeah, yeah. I was like, this is just a part of it. But um, but yeah, it's it's really incredible. Even just like like the last two months has been night and day of what what's been coming about, so so it's good. Um well man, I we can dive into a lot. I I think like I when I was researching this episode, I didn't realize your background. So you were an analyst with Crocker Partners back in like the early 2000s, yeah. And you have risen the ranks and started in the mail room. Yeah, that's kind of what it seems like. But and then 2019 you bought out some of the founding partners, and um now you you yourself are a founding partner, you rebrand.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

You've done some homework.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

I've tried to uh give give me like your perspective, like and then maybe we can go back like Crocker Partners. I know you all have been around since the 80s, and Boca Rutone's kind of home base. Yeah. Um yeah, like bring us up to um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

So I think just going back a little bit, uh I grew up in Florida, I grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. Um, it was a great place to grow up, uh was in the ocean almost every day, and and decided to go to school to Emory um after high school, and that was kind of a spur of the moment decision. And uh my sister lived in Atlanta and I came up here and visited her and was just like, this is an incredible place. And uh my best friend in high school was deciding to go to Emory too, and why not? And so we went there and and had a great time, met a lot of really great people, really opened up my mind as to like what's out there in the world just not because I'd lived in the same place for 18 years, um. So I I started Emory in ninety seven. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

So I graduated So like on the the heels of the Olympics.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Yeah, and I didn't get to go to the Olympics. Um so when I got here, that was already over with.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Um but it was just it was a it was a great moment to kind of understand like the world's a big place. And from there, I was interested in business and finance and and decided to go to work in New York as I was like, if I'm gonna do finance, let's go to the the the you know the the main stage for that business and was fortunate enough to get a job at Bear Stearns, uh, which is no longer with us. And when I was there though, it was flourishing investment bank. And uh again, like just I'd never been to New York until I interviewed there. And the first time in New York is like one of those things where now as a real estate guy too, looking back on it, uh, you're just wow. Like you're just it's it's a lot to it's a lot, it's sensory overload from the second you set foot in the city. Uh and I really enjoyed being there. And I think working, you know, I got four years of experience in two years. And I was working the whole 80 to 100 hour a week thing. And one time, uh, one time I remember, and this is just you can't make this stuff up, I was riding with our deal team, so like the the bosses, right, like the managing directors in the bank, uh, to a pitch. And I was there to like carry stuff. And we're sit, we're in like a you know, the black town car, like the whole thing. And we f we go to our pitch, we do it, we leave, and they have another meeting, but it but we were like gonna be late because they had to drop me off at the office to go do more work before they went to the meeting. And so the guy looks at me and he's like, get out. And I'm like, What do you mean? He's like, You we don't have time to drop you off, you just need to get out. I'm like, We're in downtown, like our office is in midtown. That's a long, that's a long walk. Yeah. And uh and and I was like, that's welcome to New York. You know, that's investment banking. I mean, that's investment banking in New York. And they handed me all the books, and I had like two bags of like pitch books over my shoulders, and I walked, you know, 20 blocks back to the office, and that was that. So I think I think I say all that because it kind of led me to realize that I didn't want to be an investment banker in New York for the rest of my life. And um growing up in Florida, you know, on the beach, it wasn't it was a very different environment, but man, it's an awesome city and it was a great experience, and I met a lot of really interesting people. And and from there, I actually met my current business partner, Angelo. He interviewed me to bring me into at that time what was Coger Equity. And so Coger Equity was a public company. Um, it was a kind of a sleepy southeastern office street that my former business partner had been put in charge of as CEO to turn around. And as part of the turnaround, he relocated its headquarters from Jacksonville to Boca Ratone, where he had been a prolific developer for all of his life to that point. Um he brought in all these kind of finance and kind of New York-blooded kind of people to help change the culture of the company, which we did. And in four years, we turned around the business and sold it successfully and then started Crocker Partners, which is what you had asked me about. And so when we started Crocker Partners, it was five partners originally, including myself. Uh, I was 28 years old, and uh they were like, we have no assets, we sold the whole company, and we started this new company, and it was 2005 when we sold the old one. We spent a year raising money to build a new one, and we went to New York and raised money and everything was great, and and then the world imploded. Right? The the GFC ensues, we had the first round close on our fund to thank goodness. And how much was that? $168 million. So not a whole lot, but it was enough. And and so the next several years were obviously really tough. We owned literally two assets, I think, um, but we had you know a full team of people from the prior company. So you're kind of you know, overhead ads up, those kinds of things. And sure. So you're kind of looking at like when when is this cycle gonna you know really kick back in the year? And man, it took a long time. And so, you know, as we work through that, we were patient and diligent and and you know, tried to make magic happen, and it was a hard time. And I think a lot of people, I'm 47, and so a lot of people who haven't weren't like in the working world per se at that time, I don't think necessarily have an appreciation for what it looks like when every industry, other than maybe like bankruptcy restructuring, is struggling. And so I watched a lot of our competitors go out of business. I saw lots of my friends lose their jobs. Um, it was a hard time. And and and so we persevered uh and we pushed through it and we saw the other side and things got better and yeah, I kind of carried on from there.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Hey guys, before we jump back into the episode, I just want to thank one of our main partners, Sanji High Roads. David Sanji was actually a guest in season one and has been a strong supporter of the podcast ever since. Sanji High Roads is a commercial real estate development company responsible for nearly three billion dollars in development projects. If you're here in Atlanta, you've probably seen some of their work already, including the high-centric buckhead, that's the hotel right behind Linux, and the new Howell apartments right on Howl Mill. One of their most exciting projects right now is the expansion of the Savannah Convention Center. It's a $400 million development that's been years in the making. If you're interested in development opportunities or want to learn more about their work, visit SanjiHighroads.com. Now back to the conversation. I've heard like 2012, 2013, it was when I felt like the lights were coming back on.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Yeah, we made um one of our best investments actually at the tail end of 2010. It was a project in Houston, um, Lakes on Post Oak. And and that was early. And then the rest of the projects really that we invested in were done in like 2012.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

And so I think um What was the thesis then? I was just thinking about it. Yeah, I mean, the thesis was it, you know, you can't go to zero, you can't go like beyond zero, right? Like I think values were so low and and sentiment was so bad that it felt like you know, not dissimilar in the last few years, maybe, but that it's kind of like the crash has happened. So at some point, but back then, a lot of people we started buying things very actively and and frankly had a lot of critics that were you know saying there was gonna be a double dip in the in the economy. They talked about a double dip recession all the time. And so I think people, you know, it was so bad previously that I think coming out of it, you had to be careful because you didn't want to get, you know, crushed again. Um but it was the right move. And we went uh as a partnership, we decided it was time to buy. And we did, and we bought a lot. And it was really fun. And in hindsight, it all looks like it was great and easy, but at the time it was nerve-wracking. Yeah. I mean, how many assets are we targeting? Yeah, I mean, we bought projects, we bought well prominence here in Buckhead. Um, we bought Regents Plaza here in Midtown, we bought um uh Citigroup Center down in Miami. We bought, I mean, just I think probably close to a billion dollars in total capitalization in like two or three years. And and it and the company scaled quickly. And all of a sudden, you know, you're looking in the rearview mirror, what was you know, a two-asset company with all this overhead, and now we're starting to, you know, find our way again and uh solid footing and and and just start building out the infrastructure, right? And and so that leads kind of to your next question or prior question, which was what did we uh like what happens next? And so we have this run from 2000, call it 12. Um we accumulated a lot of assets um and we started selling them off. And I think, you know, we're we're our our you know, backing up for a minute. So like CP group, like what we do is we're an operator, right? We're an operator of real estate and we make investments as a general partner along limited partners, uh, usually on a programmatic or one-off basis with these large private equity funds. And so our platform is built around being good at being local, um, property management, construction management. Uh we offer everything from um accounting to um all sorts of different services. We actually have a general contractor now. And and so, but our job is to be like the smart guys on the ground that know which side of the street you should buy on, that we can see value where others may not, um, and and leverage all that knowledge that we have of making all these mistakes for so long and and use it to our benefit, uh, which leads us to why we're sitting here. Cool. But um, but yeah, so we we we went through there and then as you point out in 2019, Angelo and I ended up buying out the remaining partners in the partnership, and we closed February of 2020.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

What great time to close it?

SPEAKER_03 12:44

I mean, you can't make it up. We buy an office building company a month before COVID starts. Oh my gosh. And um and so yeah, so I think uh looking back on it, it was one of those things where when it happened, you're like, is this really happening to me? And it ended up being like the best thing ever. And we committed to growing and figuring it out. And and it's amazing what you can accomplish when the rest of the world's sitting at home, you know, doing nothing.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Uh and you're in the office every day. That is a plug that is a plug to be in at work every day. We're office building guys.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

And uh and we figured it out and we s and we and we grew and we thought it was a great opportunity uh to buy a lot of these assets, including the one we're sitting in, you know, here at the at the center.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

And uh yeah, it was it was busy. And there's a lot of story between 2012 and and what we can do.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Uh yeah, we're we're that I appreciate the the quick and skinny of it. I'm just curious, like what were we doing all of 2020? I mean, yeah. The world was out of it.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

I mean, a lot of people were just out of a job, but I had just bought business with Angelo. Yeah. And um, and you're looking at the world where everyone's saying office buildings may be irrelevant.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Because everyone's working from home on Zoom. And so we were, you know, stabilizing the patient, so to speak, at the beginning, making sure we understood what was going on, like really going through every asset, talking with every partner, and we worked out I think I worked every day for 45 days straight, just making sure everything was stable. And um, and we have such a great team. I mean, it our company today is about 300 people, and and back then it wasn't that big. But every single person was just digging in and working overtime to get it done. And that's what it takes. And I think we we looked at it and just said, this is a great opportunity to grow, you know, once the ghost is clear. And I think that was, you know, we had to let the dust settle, but it became clear, I think, to all of us, and I forget exactly when it was, but maybe it was a year into the whole thing or whatever, that that, you know, you all of a sudden people were back at restaurants and went on vacation and kind of the world was resuming, even though there was still this looming problem.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

And we all kind of knew, okay, we're gonna get through this some way or another. Uh and then we were like, let's let's go let's go buy some stuff and make some make some investments.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

My favorite thing that I would say favorite, but most uh kind of memorable moment. The CEO of Delta came to a Kwanis Club meeting, kind of shared his story of what was going on in this. I think it was like early 23. And um he was like, by all accounts, our numbers are we're at two-thirds of what we've always been at. And he's like, That last third is business travel. So anytime I meet a CEO, I tell him, like, your people are out there, they're doing stuff. It's like if you're nervous to bring them back in the office, like they they'll you know, drag their feet, they don't want to they don't want to come back. But yeah, it's like they're out and about, they're doing stuff. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Still a pretty funny standoff. I mean, that things were pretty much back to normal with office. Right. Yeah, yeah. But it was but it was a weird and people ask me, you know, how do you get people back to the to the office? You know, what amenities do we need? I'm like, you don't need amenities, you need to tell them you want to back in the office. Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

I mean, especially like now with I don't know how much you can actually attribute to AI. They they say AI is why all these jobs are getting cut. I think there's just a a real kind of reset of efficiencies of companies and people realizing like maybe we don't need this many people to operate at the same capacity. And um so yeah, yeah, a lot of a lot of like the leverage has flipped. I mean, over COVID, it was people changing jobs all the time and get demanding more and more.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

It's funny how quickly it moves. Yeah. And I think trying to understand what's going to happen five or ten years from now is very hard to do. Um you know, the ability, even you know, I think they say projecting the weather, it's like it's really easy to do for the next 24 hours, and it's like kind of easy to do for the next three days. But once you get to like five days and beyond, it's like a 20% chance or nothing. Yeah. So I think you know, investing in this market, it moves at light speed now if, you know, relative to how it used to, it feels like. And and so you know, you do we do the best we can every day with the new information we have, right? And I think but what I do know is that a lot of what we do in real estate is not just bricks and mortar, right? It's it's culture. It's it's creating emotional real estate, right? It's what how do you feel when you walk into a place? I had a really interesting experience a couple weeks ago. We um we had downtown day uh at the Capitol. Were you there? Okay. So they once a year they they I don't know who they are, but there's an event organized. And um and all the people who are doing projects in downtown are invited to come kind of do like a science fair, is what it feels like in the in like the atrium of the Capitol building. Which if you if you ever stood in the atrium of the Capitol building, it's pretty cool. It's an awesome experience. Yeah. And so uh when I walked in there, and we've done this twice now, and and it's it feels like you're just in the middle of everything. There's like field trips, there's legislators, there's business people, um, it's loud, it's this old building. It just feels it feels like a capital, right? It just feels appropriate. And um and so as you're as as you do all that, I was just like, man, this is like the way I felt standing in that room, right? I thought about it and I didn't think about it then. I thought about it at the end of the day because after I left there, I bumped into John Birdsong uh at the event and and I asked him how their project was doing. It's just like incredible what those guys were doing.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

And I asked him, I said, can I just come walk your project? You have time, I'd love to see it today if you have a minute. He's like, absolutely. And so we left there and he told me it was a five-minute walk to their project, which it is. And we went through the whole thing. And and the way I felt walking through his project was completely different than how I felt standing in the state capitol, right? We're not very far, or five minutes away walking distance, right? But these are two very distinctly different places.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

And then after that, um, which by the way, like just hats off to what they're doing there. Like, and it's moving at light speed. I had no appreciation for how much, just like kind of when you walk in here and you see all the people working. I didn't, I mean, there was over a hundred people working in the street down there, we're restoring everything perfectly. Oh, yeah. Uh as a real estate guy, you can kind of geek out on that and it's super exciting.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

It's not, I mean, I don't know if you saw we did like a little documentary on that. We walked all the buildings and the project managers and I saw you guys had a couple different things with them.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

I didn't watch the entire thing, but I kind of clicked through the phone. It was way longer than we. Well, I've done I've done the tour too. So but I think it's um but but I just think so. My point is like, so in the morning I'm in the Capitol building, feels one way, right? Yeah. And then I'm in their project, feels one way. And then I came back to Buckhead, my office is in prominence, um, and went to lunch in Buckhead, and then I was in a restaurant, and it felt completely different, right? Yeah. And when I went home that day, um, I told my wife, I was like, I just an interesting day today. And and I said, you know, I stood in the state capitol, then I went toward a historic part of downtown being restored, and then I went to like a new modern restaurant in Buckhead for lunch or whatever afternoon lunch. And and I'm like, it just tells you how real estate, it it's so emotional, right? Like there's where you are, it's more than just the building. It's the people, it's the context, it's the neighborhood, it's the programming, it's how it all comes together. And I think, I think as we think about projects now, and we as we're doing bigger and bigger projects, um, like the center, like Bank of America, uh like Boca Raton Innovation Campus, just a lot of these things, Piedmont Center, um, you really have to think about how someone feels and what is it? Because you can design something that's beautiful or really well thought out, but if it's not activated or programmed the right way, it kind of just becomes a museum. And and I and I think that's something that it's taken me a long time to realize. And there's other guys who do this really, really well in the world. And I think there's a lot we could learn in office building business from the hospitality people, um, which we talk about a lot, kind of the hospital hospitalityization, if that's a word, of of real estate.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Any any of the nice office buildings, like your lobby is a it's a hotel.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

It's a hotel. And and so I think, but I just I I guess I say all that because I just think as you think about real estate and what it is, and like especially in the the fabric of like this city and being in downtown right now and all these moments we're having um around Atlanta, which is just incredible to see the flywheel spinning right now. Uh I just think it's really important not to just focus on the physical, but focus on the emotional connection, the programming of the spaces.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah. And another shout out to John and the team that's out downtown like Smorgesborg and all the tours that they've done and like is as far as the activation of that space. And it just has such a different life. Incredible job. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. So that's good. I you have just a really valuable perspective having your hands really in every major submarket. I mean, you'll you're all over the city. So hey guys, before we get back to the episode, I want to thank one of our partners, the Beck Group. Beck is a collaborative team of designers, builders, and technology experts that cover a multitude of disciplines all under one roof. Typically in a project, you have a designer and a GC, but Beck is different. Both of these disciplines are combined under one roof, so nothing falls through the cracks. This approach helps organizations rethink the way they plan, design, and build their spaces. To learn more about their work and services, visit Beckgroup.com. Now back to the show. I'd love to just kind of get the update on Piedmont Center. That seems to be the active conversation in Buckhead. And it's uh I was that's a big chunk of space. I mean 2.2 million.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

2.2 million square feet, 46 acres, 6,000 parking spaces, 14 buildings. Right. And and it's in a lot of beachfront real estate along Piedmont Road, kind of connecting the neighborhood district of Buckhead to the commercial district. Yeah. So I think as we look at that, um what a what a canvas, right? I think as I look at it, uh one, sitting in Buckhead at that at that kind of passageway is such an interesting point. I drive by it every Day on my way to work and every day on my way home. And for years, I mean decades, I've I've passed that project, I've been in that project. When we had the opportunity to make an investment there, uh, we really sat back and just thought, like, okay, you're not going to knock all this down. They were never doing that. This is a cool project. It was, it was well conceived. It's a little confusing at times when you pull in there trying to find your way around. And I think we're doing everything to fix that right now, which we can do. Uh, but what it needed was was activation. It it you know, it was built in a period where car dominance and suburban setting in an urban kind of um center was the thing. And now we've kind of matured out of that stage of real estate. And I think what we need to do is is do the proper adjustments to that park to really make it what people want today. And so, like we're saying, we're gonna be building um, you know, half a dozen stand-up, standalone restaurants up along Piedmont Road. Where there's so much land there. I don't think anybody even knows how much land is there. And when we walk it, it's incredible. And so we're gonna be activating that with a whole new street frontage concept. We're gonna be converting, we are we've already started buildings nine through twelve into um a medical center, Buckhead Medical Center. Uh it's already been really successful. We have had a ton of interests. Uh, we're close to getting a first yield signed, uh a big one. So it's it's really exciting. Like I think I think all the pieces there, renovations, food, all that.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Like a hundred thousand feet or something.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

I can't. I don't even want to I don't even want to throw that into the atmosphere. But it's I'm pulling it up so you can. Yeah. I mean, if you look at all those trees, um, which we intend to keep a lot of them, I think we're gonna create sort of a network of a roadway that passes through the front of the project and then is really it's just it's neighborhood appropriate, right? It'll be a place you want to bring um your family or you want to meet a business colleague for for dinner, um, kind of appropriate for all that. And I think, you know, we look around Atlanta and you see a couple places that have had uh a huge amount of success doing things like that, like like over at uh North Creek. And and they've just I mean I mean it's just incredible, right? Yeah, yeah. And so I think put a little ray here. Just put a little ray there. And the line will be out the door. And the line's out the door. And so I think we're like, look, there's a huge pent-up demand, um, especially coming out of all these neighborhoods over by Chastain Park and all these great neighborhoods. You know, you have this really dense residential area and it's really flanked by Roswell Road on one side, um, and and ultimately over to Northside on the other, and got some thoroughfares on the way through, but there's not a lot of you can't really have any commercial other than you know the Chastain, which just sits right by Chastain Park, which is fantastic. Um, but these places get overwhelmed with demand. And so as we look at our project, we're like, man, we can serve both the community and the office users, which it really takes to get the right kinds of uh restaurant tenants in here, is they want to be able to have that built-in base. And so I think as we looked at it, um, super bullish on that, and then I think making improvements to the project itself. So we're doing you know some common air renovations, we're putting in um food operators inside each of the buildings that'll be really you know fresh, healthy, good, quick, moderately priced options for a daily office user that just needs to grab something and get back to their desk. The medical piece is gonna what we're doing at Buckethead Medical Center, I think, is gonna set a standard for what new multi-tenant medical will look like because frankly, these medical guys have had it too easy for too long. Um there's so much demand that they didn't have to, they didn't have to kind of do all the crazy things us office guys had to do to get people to want to come in from an amenity perspective. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we'll have doctors' lounges and giant cafes and restaurants and transportation lounges and all sorts of stuff. I mean, just all sorts of stuff. And um, it's been really well received. So I think when you're talking about a half a million foot part of the project, you know, that gives you a large enough um asset base that you can spread those dollars over efficiently and really deliver something that stands out.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Yeah. What do you do with like the normal office users in those buildings?

SPEAKER_03 25:46

Yeah. So I mean, a lot of those office users we're already in conversations with. First of all, like like it's four separate buildings, right? Yeah. So if you want to be an office user in one of those buildings, we can figure that out. If you want to take a whole building for yourself, it's your isolated, you know, I shouldn't say isolated. You're you're you can mitigate if you don't want to have interaction with clinical um medical work, that's fine. Um, there's multiple parking structures. Like it actually lays out really, really well to do either all medical, mostly medical, if some office wants to be there, that's fine too. But and then if people want to relocate within the park, that's great. A lot of those tenants' leases come up and they want new space and all that, all that. And I think we can offer that. We have 10 other buildings in the park with plenty of vacancy that we can move them into. So I think for us, you know, we bought this asset unlevered. Um, we bought it with the right program, capital, you know, kind of capex plan. Um we're just really excited because that that asset is incredible. Like from where it sits, the market around it, what it offers, like the buildings themselves are really well built. Like I think every time I walk through it, I'm always uh pleasantly surprised at like, you know, how the prior owners and and the prior developer of it just they built it right. And so um, we just need to shine it up a little bit. And I think that's that's kind of what we do.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Was there anything notable about the acquisition? I I know there's a couple other groups that were trying to get their hands on it, but I don't know, from you I so you're unlevered, so y'all you put 100% equity. And I mean the other partners I don't I I don't know. I'm not an acquisition.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

Yeah, no, RLP, I mean, I mean, yeah, without uh RLP and the deal um wanted to own it unlevered. And um and so we thought that was a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

And so we came into the to the deal with them. And I think, you know, you look at other projects we've done. I mean, look, the the building next door prominence. So I bought that building in 2012. Uh that was one of the assets we purchased coming out of the GFC. And you know, I don't know if you remember what Prominence looked like before it had all the development around it, but it was an island and it was an island. Yeah, it was it was five acres of grass surrounding the base of that building.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

And so when I bought that, you know, it's funny, you just when I bought that building in 2012, our partner at that time um, you know, came down to look at the building. And it was actually backing up even further. The reason we own that building is because we didn't end up buying Promenade uh two. So the cousins ended up buying it. And and we bit on it and I lost it by a half a million dollars. And my partner, our LP, looked at me, and I've just one of my favorite people in the business, been a mentor for me. Uh, and he said, Don't ever do that to me again. And I was like, What? And he's like, You inched me along, and then we lost. And I was just emotionally invested the whole time. And then we lose a hundred and I think they paid like a, I'm gonna get this wrong, but I think it was like $137 million. And we, and we had we lost the whole bit by like a half a million dollars. And so, so he said, Don't do that to me again. I thought, okay, so prominence comes for sale shortly thereafter, and and he's like, I want to own this. And and he's like, This is a good asset and it's got a great business plan. And he said, get it done. And so when we went through it, I was like, okay, like I can't make this mistake twice. This is a guy who's you know willing to bet on us coming out of the GFC. And they we bought some other assets together and just really thoughtful, smart guys. And um, and so we ended up buying it, and he came down to look at it with me and you know from New York, and we're walking out the out in front of the building on the land. And now it was all grass, and there's there was there's some wooded areas, there's like a so all that land was a part of it. Well, yeah, so it was it was it was technically two different transactions, but it was the ownership was was um uh TIA Cref owned the the building with Blackstone as a minority owner or EOP because they had acquired EOP at that point. And then the land um was owned completely by uh EOP or Blackstone. Yeah, and so but but it made you weren't gonna buy the building and not buy the land. It was it was the front door of the building. Right. And so he came down and we we walked in. He's like, let's just go walk around the site. And I was like, well, if it's right there, and he's like, No, no, no, no. He's like, let's walk the site. And I'm like, we're like sitting here in like, you know, dress clothes and shoes, and it's like muddy everywhere. And he's like, if we're gonna buy this, I need to walk this. So we just walked down into the woods and uh spent about 10 minutes, you know, stepping over things and seeing stuff. And then we walk out of it and he looks at me and he goes, buy it. And I was like, okay. So we figured it out and uh I started the rezoning project immediately. I spent a year standing in the living rooms of everybody uh next door at all the townhomes explaining what it was gonna look like. We had renderings done from everyone's like vantage point uh of this wasn't gonna be something bad for them, but it was gonna be good and it was gonna add restaurants and things. And uh and everybody agreed. And we got to the point, it was there were everyone was great to work with. Um and and yeah, and it ended up becoming what it is now. And I spent a couple years after that master planning it and really figuring out what we wanted it to be, uh, keeping the scale appropriate, uh, the apartments out front, adding a hotel to the site. But the most important part for us was to get these restaurants because I think to your point earlier, it was on an island. And and so we we really put into the development plan you had to build, I think it's 20,000 feet of restaurants there. Yeah. And um and it's worked beautifully.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah. I keep hearing about the pizza spot. It's awesome. I was there yesterday. Yeah. Mr. O1. Yeah, that's it. Uh I can't eat cheese, so uh Okay. Yeah. Um maybe I'll I don't know. They have a great salad. Okay. But yeah, yeah, CT Reforma and Zik Zakia.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

Yeah, and and yeah, Zakia's there. There, I I mean I eat at each of those places every week. So I yeah, do our part, but they're busy and and you know, and we always go to Chipotle, which is not in our project, but it's across the street.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

That's a staple. Yeah. Well, uh good work. I mean, that's that's quite I mean it's right right over here.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Yeah, so really so yeah, as we talk about promise, I think you look at the density there, and that was all I mean the only building that was there when we bought it was the office building in the back. And and we kind of master planned, we rezoned, master planned, and then selected developers to come in and do each piece kind of in conjunction with the plan. I think they were Mill Creek ended up doing both the multifamily phases. It wasn't originally that wasn't originally the plan. Um, it worked out that way. Uh and then and then Pete Patel, uh Rev Parr at the time, yeah, uh built a hotel as an element and it worked out really well. And so I think all of it, you know, the retail along the base you see there at the corner. But as we looked at this, you look at Piedmont Center, we're like, why not us, right? I think I think our view is you can extend this experience, which would be really great for Buckhead, um, more towards the residential side. And so adding retail there works from a market perspective. It works from an office building. Um, it's a creative to the office experience, it's a creative to the community experience. Um, it's what people want. We do surveys every year of our entire portfolio, and we have um almost 22 million feet of space around the country, and that's all office space with some you know small retail components to it.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

Uh but but we do surveys, and every year it's 95% of people are like walkable food is the most important thing that I want. And then it's like 4% conference room and 1% everything else. I mean, I mean, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I think the point is like food is incredibly important.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:49

And so I think as we look at a lot of these projects now, and which makes sense. I mean, all of us want to eat. I mean, at the end of the day, if you you go to work, you might not go to the gym, but you're gonna eat.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Yeah. Right? Yeah. So and having a good cafe and a couple options and reasonably priced. It's a very real component when we tour with with clients like tenants, what what kind of building you want to be in, what what restaurants are there, and um fit checkster boxes. Yeah, for sure. Well, uh yeah, thanks for doing this. It's uh it's a really it's a prime corner. It's nuts. It was just like a grassy bachelor. Um okay, so we're thinking just extend this kind of energy just further along.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

That's exactly right. That's exactly just like it's it's that easy, right? Just like that. Just ask just ask your Gemini to render it, and there it is. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

So um well, it's exciting. Hey guys, before we continue, I just want to thank one of our partners, Corporate Environments. They're Georgia's leading full service commercial furniture and workplace solutions providers. Whether you're building out a new office, redesigning, co-working, or managing large-scale tenor improvement projects, their team brings expertise in a full service way workplace strategy, interior design, project management, delivery, and installation. They've got locations in Atlanta, Birmingham, and Savannah, and they're helping businesses across Georgia create spaces that leave a lasting impression. You can learn more at corporateenvironments.com. Now back to the show. Are y'all going to put an observation deck on top of Bank of America?

SPEAKER_03 34:13

I mean, we're working on it. Okay. Yeah, we are absolutely very focused on getting that done. And um uh yeah, I think it's the one of the worst kept secrets that we're working on, right? As I think we keep socializing it, and and frankly, we've been working on it for a few years now, and it's getting to a point where it's getting really interesting. And so uh no, you know, I'm not I'm not here to say it's absolutely happening, but I'll tell you that there are a lot of hands, a lot of heads in the huddle trying to figure this out right now.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Um and and it should happen. I I want it to happen. Like I think it's I think it's a good thing for our city. I think it's a great thing for our building. It's weird to me that there's not an observation deck really anywhere in the southeastern United States. I mean, uh New York has five of them.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Right? Well, because the numbers came out about how much they print money up there. Did you hear about that? The whole like uh I it was Empire State Building became public. Yeah. And there was some little note that it was printing like $140 million a year.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

It's there's I've seen the numbers on all these different projects around the world. Um we've hired consultants to work with to kind of pull this all together. Uh and they're it's a great margin business. Yeah. But but it it's interesting because there's a large moat around it, right? You gotta have a tall building, a very tall building. Yeah. Um, it has to be in a city that has the the demand, the drivers, the visitors, the tourism to support it. Yeah. Because they're incredibly expensive to build.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Um separate access, everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Our project and and and you know, Ryan has been architecting this with a team of people. And I think when you come through it and look at it, it's completely separate. Access points, elevators, the whole experience will never intersect with the office. Um and it's a lot to figure out. But as you point out, I think there's a few things. Yes, it's it's financially it works, otherwise nobody would even consider it.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Right.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

Um but I think from a standpoint of like just what it represents, it's so exciting. And and Atlanta, you know, when we bought this project, the center, I sp I didn't I I can't say I truly understood how strong our tourism business was here. Um downtown is the economic engine of this city. Yeah. I mean, f over 50 million visitors a year. It's and and I say this all the time, but it's the fourth most of any city in the United States. So you have, I believe it's Orlando, New York, Chicago, Atlanta. And that's a lot of people. And so I kept thinking, you know, when people come here, what do they do? You know? Maybe they go to Pond City Market. Well, they definitely go to the airport. And um and and then you have a handful of things that you can do when you're here, uh, but we can add to that. And I think for any city that has that many tourists coming here, and in the in the in the name in the the makeup of that 50 million is definitely different than the 50 million that shows up in Las Vegas or the 40 million, whatever it is, yeah, or Disney World. But but it's business travelers, it's regional visitors, it's people coming to see their families. Um, it's incredible. And they all are looking for things to do.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah. We've had Kevin Duvall, William Pate, we've had, you know, the the kind of roster. And I didn't realize until we started setting up the studio here. We'd go get lunch over the Omni, and it was like one day there'd be like the Safari conservationists of Dallas. Yeah. Just some like bunch of guys with cowboy hats on, and then like the next week it would be the cheerleading competition, and it's just nuts how many conventions come through here.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

I had a day a couple years ago, um, it might have been two or three years ago, when I brought uh I have two boys, and I brought my wife, my two kids here, and there was it was um oh my goodness, what's the name of the conference? It's it's the one, it's kind of the gamer conference. And and um and when we came down here, there was there was a NCAA basketball game being played in State Farm Arena. Yeah. It was a big like a marquee matchup, I think it was like UNC Kentucky or something. And then there was uh I think it was the high school football championship being played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And then there was this convention going on at the convention center. And if you didn't go downtown that day, you had no idea that there were like 70,000 people hanging out right here.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

But but like that happens all the time. Yeah. And I think that was one thing to me that until we really made the investment down here, I didn't have an appreciation for. And that is an incredible economic engine. And the the gentleman you mentioned earlier, you know, William Pate and Kevin Duvall, I mean, these guys are killing it. I mean, they're what wonderful leaders for us to have. Um, and the effort down here in the Atlanta Convention Visitors Bureau and the Georgia World Congress Center. I mean, these are these are just and I don't I just think most people in Atlanta don't. There's like different ecosystems in the city because it's so big. And you just have like the downtown one and the conventions and the arenas and the park, the center. Um, and and then a lot of people just don't see it unless they're at the Hawks game, which shout out to the Hawks for winning last night. That was exciting.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Um, but I think that's gonna change. And I and I and and I think as you sit down here now, and I know you're you know this better than anyone, but the energy of Centennial Yards, South Downtown, the center, what they're doing at the convention center, like all these arenas and events and things, like it's real. And what's interesting to me is it's all gonna come online at about the same time. Right? I mean, and it's because of the World Cup. And yeah, six weeks. You're gonna host the whole world here at the same time, the downtown like reopening all these things.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Yeah, and we have the city repaving everything and up and pressure washing.

SPEAKER_03 39:31

Yeah, we're putting up a bunch of art outside. I I just really happy about that.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

I think great paint job on the building. Is that clean? Well, yeah, we cleaned it.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

We cleaned it, we painted it, it looks amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, just like I don't know if you've seen any of the murals that have gone up in the last couple weeks. Um they're awesome. And I think that's a big part of like what you know is Atlanta opens its doors to welcome the world here. That's real. I mean, since the Olympics, this is the biggest sporting event that's been here. Biggest any event, um, I think. Yeah. And so so I think just being able to say, like, hey, we're more than just an arena, we're more than just, you know, some food, whatever, like we have culture and art and and you know, that's what we offer. And I think it's cool. Like, everyone's gonna get to see that. So like let's put our best best foot forward here.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Yeah, yeah. It's coming, it's coming very, very soon. Um I wanna I wanna switch back to you. I just we have a lot of students that listen in and we even have some interns with us. Um you went from analyst at at investment group and you've risen the ranks. Like what not everybody does that. I think that's like a pretty rare thing for people. Like I don't know what what recommendations, what advice do you have? I mean, it was that that made you stand out.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

I think um one one, I think you have to be driven. Like it's just just pick what you're pick what it is you want and then go at it, right? Um for me, it's kind of it's kind of a funny story. So when I was in when I was in college, uh I knew I wanted to do finance. I don't know why I wanted to do finance, because it's really not that cool. Yeah, uh, but I knew I wasn't gonna be like a professional soccer player. So I might as well pick something in business. I want to do business. And and so um I started learn learning about what you could do. I talked to our like advisors and things, and they were like, well, look, if you're gonna go into a business, there's like investment banking, there's consulting, there's all these different things. And for whatever reason, I gravitated towards kind of finance and banking because they were like, this will open up more doors for you. Right. And so as I started to figure out how to get to that point, and this is tying back to the young listeners and and things like that, you know, use the resources around you. So what I did is I went to our career center. It's probably all like super easy to do now because back then you had to like go somewhere to get information. And this is like 19 or 2000. And um, and I got all the names of alumni from Emery, is where I went, that worked on Wall Street because that was like a thing they tracked. And then I started emailing all of them and being like, hey, I want a job in New York, help me. And it was great. People actually want to help you. And I learned people like helping people who are like trying to blaze the trail that they blazed before them, right? So, you know, people who'd they knew it was tough to get these jobs. They knew, you know, coming from the south, going to the northeast isn't the easiest grind. And and so I in a and what ended up being a typo, I send an email to an alumni um of Emory whose name was Allison Greenberg. Now I had previously emailed another uh uh alumni named Evan Goldberg, and his email was egoldberg at bear.com. Okay, bear sterns. And so I just guessed, because I didn't have Allison's email, that her email would be a Greenberg at Bear.com. So I send the email, and within like 10 minutes, I get a phone call. And I'm sitting in like my college house with like three of my buddies. He answers the phone, he's like, you know, what's up? You know, and and it's this this guy, and he's like, This is Alan Greenberg from Bear Stearns. Is Chris there? And so he looks at me and he's like, someone from Bear Stearns is calling you. And I'm like, okay. So you know, 21-year-old me runs over and grabs the phone and I'm hello, and and and he says, This is Alan Greenberg from Bear Stearns. I received a fax from you and I think you sent it to the wrong person. I'm thinking, a fax? Like I just sent an email. Now you guys are younger than me. So like email was not I wouldn't say it was a new thing, it was a thing. But this guy was old school, and so clearly someone was printing out his emails and handing it to him. And so I say, Um, well, I'm sorry. Like I didn't mean I I was trying to reach an alumni from my school, I got Emory, and um, and he's like, Oh, well, I can see from looking at this that you want to work here. And I'm like, that's absolutely right. I'm like, I'm I would it's like my dream job. And he said, Well, what did you say the name of that person was again? I said, uh, Allison Greenberg. And he goes, Hang on one second. I can hear him like put the phone on his shoulder, and then he screams out, Does anybody know an Allison Greenberg who works here? And then he pauses for a minute and gets back on the phone. He's like, I can't seem to find her. He's like, but I can get your resume in the right hands. So at this moment, I'm like, Alan Greenberg, why do I know that name? Yeah, like who is this guy? So I hang up the phone and I realized, because I'd done all my research and like this again, young people out there, do your homework on the people that you're going to be approaching to talk about career opportunities. So back then they had these little cheat sheet books you could buy. I think it was from like vault.com or something, and they would tell you everything about a company. So Alan Greenberg is the chairman of Bear Stearns. His name is Ace Freenberg, but everybody calls him Ace. So this guy is like a legend on Wall Street, like literally a legend. Okay. Calls me, right? Wow. So you can imagine when the chairman of the company sends an email to HR saying, consider this applicant's resume, you get a phone call.

SPEAKER_04 44:49

Jeez.

SPEAKER_03 44:49

So like literally I get into this whole mess because of a typo. Wow. So it's hard work and luck, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I think, you know, if you're out there, big be out there, talk to people, be respectful. If you go to meet with someone, learn about them before you meet with them. Yeah. But like just be out there. Yeah. It just helps.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

You're getting reps in, you're you're fresh, and and momentum breeds momentum. And that's uh that's a pretty great typo.

SPEAKER_03 45:20

It was crazy. Yeah. Then we kept thinking, so then my roommates were all like, let's try to guess the the CEO's emails of all the banks.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

Didn't work. I love his comment. He's like, I think I can get this on the right hand.

SPEAKER_03 45:31

Literally how he said it. Just oh I can take care of this. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Yeah. Okay. So you go work for them and then just work really, really hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Yes. Grind it out. Um and then met Angelo. He came and interviewed me at my current business partner. He interviewed me and hired me as his like senior analyst uh back in 2003. So I moved to South Florida. Um, growing up in the west coast of Florida, it was an easy, easy move for me to make. Um is Angelo here in Atlanta? Angelo's not here in Atlanta. Angelo sits in South Florida. Okay. Yeah. And so he uh he was previously an attorney by by trade. He worked in New York, um, very successful attorney, worked at Tishman Spire for a little while too, and then kind of got hired in by our former uh business partner, and then he hired me in. So it was kind of like he brought me in and it was off to the races, and we just started doing it, and and as I said, we sold the company, and I think I just kept pushing, right? Like I think there's a big part of like just being out there, like trying to make things happen, like swing big. And like I think like that's one thing that it's taken me a long time to figure out is like remove these mental barriers you have of what you can do, take big swings, like think large, and then surround yourself with people who are like that, right? Try to find other people who are doing those things. Uh, because they they it's it's it's like anything. If you if you like to run and you run with someone who's faster than you, you run faster. You like to play golf and you play golf with someone who plays better golf than you, you probably focus more. Like anything if you start being around the right people starts to like flywheel it. And I think um, you know, Angelo's been an incredible business partner of mine, mentor of mine. I mean, literally taught me the business from an early age. And um, and yeah, it's just been it's just been a sprint. Yeah. Still is. Yeah. We're just getting started. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Yeah. All two two bricks on the throttle just going full. Um, I I want to ask, were like where so y'all have been pretty bullish on office acquisitions. Um, where else do you see opportunity? And is it is it still office? I from my standpoint as as a tenor rep, we get a lot of calls from people that are like, hey, what do you what do you think of this building? We're looking at it and just kind of getting a a read. So we know there's a lot of people that are looking at at office acquisitions, but um yeah, I'm I'm curious what we're doing. Yeah, I mean it's tough out there today.

SPEAKER_03 47:43

I think I think we're very bullish on office space, but not all office space. I think you have to you have to kind of pick it's uh, as they say, a stock picker's market right now, right? You gotta pick you gotta pick what you think is gonna succeed in the near term. I mean, look, it time matters too, right? You uh in in a vacuum, if I said, do I buy this and in 30 years is it worth more? Sure. But like that's not what we're paid to do. I think we're we have to find the near-term opportunities, uh, the opportunities that are maybe not as visible to to people looking from the outside. Um, but the office market is fundamentally stronger today than I've seen it since COVID began. And I'm sure you see that too in conversations you're having. And I think a lot of office tenants are a little gun shy sometimes when it comes to taking space because they don't know, and then you have this AI thing coming, and what does that mean? But it's interesting because the business leaders, they all want everybody in the office. They're all not afraid to commit to space anymore. Um I think people need to run their businesses, right? That's what they they're like, we have to run a business, and then my people need to be together, and we want to do it in an area that they like to come to. And it's not, you don't have to overthink it, right? I think it's create a product people like, right? Cool. Are y'all looking anywhere outside of Atlanta? I mean, we've been super busy. I mean, we bought, as you as you mentioned earlier, we bought Piedmont Center last summer. Um we bought a million square foot project in downtown Denver a few months ago. Um we closed on a portfolio, I think it's about 900,000 feet of space in Orlando a few months ago. Um we're working on another large-scale acquisition in South Florida right now. Yeah. Um These are all office. These are all all office, yeah, all office. One's got a mixed use component to it. Okay. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. So over four million feet.

SPEAKER_00 49:17

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how how big's the portfolio now?

SPEAKER_03 49:20

Yeah, so we're we're about twenty-two million feet. Okay. Um, call it about three, three and a half billion of assets under management, uh, three hundred employees. We have offices in DC or Bethesda. Um, we have off an office in Charlotte, Atlanta, Florida. I mean, in Atlanta, we're the largest private owner of commercial real estate, and Florida, we're the largest owner. And we have offices in Texas, Denver, all over.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

So I think there's opportunity everywhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

And I think you got to really dig in. We're finding it. Hey guys, before we get back to the episode, I just want to thank one of our partners, USA Cabling Technologies and Solutions. Alex Morris and his team have been incredible partners for us and actually helped us bring our studio setup to life here. And also got to give a shout out to Danny Pratt. If you're building out an office, upgrading your audiovisual systems, or need any low voltage solutions, these are the people to call. Their team is professional, reliable, and truly top-tier at what they do. To learn more, visit USACablingTech.com. Now back to the show. I know we just we talked about how you can't predict the weather and how far things are, but I for like a 10-year perspective from from y'all, like is it it's just more office buildings.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

I mean Sunbelt, you guys are the Sunbelt Developers uh podcast here. I think we're in the right place, right? Like I grew up in Florida, and I guess in a weird way that was sort of like great positioning for me uh being in an area that's growing and never really leaving that ecosystem of being in Atlanta. And and I think the migration continues and people want to be here. Uh our city is incredible. I think we offer so much and it's got great leadership. And so I just think, yeah, I think my 10-year horizon is we need to buy a lot more of the right type of product and we need to position things. Like I think, I think probably the best trade today is the 20-year-old, well-located, well-built building that you can renovate to compete with the top-tier product. Now, I think the quality of those renovations needs to be higher than it's ever been. Right? It used to be you could, you know, change the furniture, do some flooring, and things like that, and people would be like it's renovated. Now I think you gotta I mean if you look at what we did at Bank of America Plaza.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

Oh, I was just thinking about that.

SPEAKER_03 51:33

I mean it's unreal.

SPEAKER_00 51:35

It's unreal.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

Gensler, in fact, I was just talking to the Gensler team that did it this week, they just won a huge award for it. Um so super excited for them. Why do you bring that up?

SPEAKER_00 51:43

I mean, just the lobby's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 51:45

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 51:46

Total trend.

SPEAKER_03 51:46

It's my favorite, it's like it's my favorite lobby renovation I think we've ever done. It's um and when it was funny when we did the architecture selection, they kind of showed their initial concept and we just we just loved it. I think that's a that's a rendering, but that is it's exactly what it looks like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

There's a picture.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

Yep. And we're getting some art right now for that large black wall.

SPEAKER_00 52:07

But it's um is it a penley?

SPEAKER_03 52:10

No, it's not. Okay. The uh I'll tell you what though. So you look at the the kind of brass um bars that go up in the ceiling. So I don't know if you if anyone on our team, Ryan, or anyone explain this to you, but the inspiration for that, and the Gensler team came up with this, I thought it was an incredible idea. Is it's the spire on the building inverted. So if you look at the top of the building, we have the kind of beautiful gold spire. Yeah. Um, kind of looks like a gold cage. Right. Yeah. And so the idea was when you see the building from a distance, everybody knows it, right? It's the tallest building in the Southeast United States. And it has such an identifiable crown. But when you get really close to it, you can't see that crown and you can't see how tall it is, and you kind of lose that experience. So the idea they had was let's bring that experience from the top to the bottom. And uh and I thought they their idea of creating this more like moot dark and moody, intentionally um um art deco building that just kind of has this kind of flair put into it. I loved it. Like even the even the security desk. The bean, the bean. It doesn't first thing I said, it looks like the bean. And they were like, and I was like, but it's just such a nice contrast to to what you typically see, and I think it flows into the the curve you see in the building. I just the f the floor, I mean, I really it was a lot of fun. It was a fun project, and um and I think it's um it's fun to work with people who are really good at design. And the team we had at uh at Gansler that did it was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Yeah. Yeah. And y'all just got a fresh bucket of capital to do. I guess like the West.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

Yeah, we're building out so we're we're building out a restaurant there. So we're gonna get we're working with a group out of New York called uh Episcope. Okay. And they did um the one pen kind of redevelopment up there, and they're incredible. Uh their their brand and quality of product and operations uh is really good. And the West Wing will be done this next year. It's already uh all the plans and finished being drawn. We've priced it like we're getting started. And so it'll all get finished up soon, and we'll have a great new restaurant there. Um it's gonna be exciting. Cool. Yeah. Good job. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

Appreciate it, man. And and you want, yeah, you got Evershed, you got Ogletree.

SPEAKER_03 54:13

We got Ever Sheds, we got Ogletree. We've had we've done it, we've had it just everybody likes it. And I think it's um, you know, but it's never easy on the front end, right? Like you look at it, and we had four architects pick pitch us white boxes, you know, white floors, white walls, lots of glass. And then Gensler walks in with what you just saw. And it was they mean it's very different. And we were like, we all unanimously, everyone's like, this is it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

Very, very unique. Yeah. They're a great team. Yeah. As this, I guess this was another this is one of those kind of whitewashed versions.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

Yeah, that was not the one we chose.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

No. Still looks nice. Yeah. Um good. What else can I ask you about?

SPEAKER_00 54:49

I mean, you're you've had an incredible run, you've got a a great future, and you've got a lot of cool projects underway. I mean, what and and I know your thoughts on downtown. I usually like asking about that.

SPEAKER_03 54:59

No, I mean, I think I think downtown is I think I think this is its moment, right? Like I think this is uh I'm excited. Like to have the World Cup here is gonna be great. I think it's it's a month and then it's over, and then we gotta keep doing stuff.

unknown 55:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:09

And so I think that's gonna be exciting. I think the um, you know, as as the mayor says, you know, Atlanta's a group project, and it's been really fun to be part of that project, um, but it is a group project. And it's been really um humbling to get to meet a lot of the leaders of the city and the and some of the people you talked about earlier at the convention center and the ACBB, and just people really want all this to work. And I think um I hope the people who aren't in the real estate world or don't hear that every day or see it every day, like know that like there's some great people leading this effort, um, both in the public and private sector. And um, you know, I I hate to say this time it's gonna be different, but it is. And and I'm excited for it, man.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:51

It's good. Thank you for what you do. This is educating everybody and getting out there and and being in our building and just breathing some life into it again. And all it's it's um it's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

Yeah. Yeah, it's and this is kind of a full circle moment. The very first video we did was top of Bank of America with Jim Overton, who actually built this building and built Bank of America.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

Is that when you uh threw the drone off the roof?

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Uh that was a separate activity. Yeah, but yeah, that was that was Scott told me yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

He was like, he's like, yeah, he's like, he was at the roof and he just threw the drone off, and I was like, that's exciting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:23

Yeah. I mean, it was an exciting field trip. You go up to the top and just you could see for a million miles. That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

We take we take a lot of people to the 55th floor, which is the top floor. Yeah. Um, it's completely as you know, demoed out, so it's like shell space. Um, and the view's incredible. And then you walk up to the roof, and somehow somehow you're 12 feet higher, yeah, but it feels a world apart. And I think it's it's kind of like like putting like the convertible top down or something. Like it just feels you're outside and the sun and the wind, and um it's a great it's a great place to stand and just s see the city.

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Yeah. On that note, okay, so for the the observation deck, are y'all looking to do it on the roof roof? Because I I know a lot of like or is it that 55th floor is it would be the top three floors.

SPEAKER_02 57:04

Okay. Cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

So well, if you have like a little carve out for that kind of southwest corner on the roof, would be a waste of it.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

No, I think look, every I think we continue to evaluate it. Um you want to do something that's impressive. It will be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 57:23

Um dude, I I love the watch. I I saw again are you a big watch guy or is this uh a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 57:28

Not not just not like a crazy passion for me, but I uh I like them. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:33

Well yeah, yeah. Everybody has you know different like I know Sanji came in, had a Blanc Pond, and um we had Herbert or Herb Ames, he came in, he had this beautiful day just from I think it was from his dad from the 70s or something. So always curious what people's watch game is.

SPEAKER_03 57:48

Yeah, no, it's um I can see why you asked. No, it's fun. It's uh it was a fun one to get, and I think uh um Daytonas are our iconic.

SPEAKER_00 57:55

They're great. Yeah, Aaron Keel, he got um I don't have you seen his? It's like this fully gold, beautiful Daytona. Nice. And he was so he just turned 50 and he made this huge career pivot over to Cushman, and that was he was like, I needed, you know, something. And uh he was looking at like a day date, like the presidential, like the it's kind of I mean they're beautiful watches, so they're just kind of grandpa looking watching. He it was the right choice, but day toners, it's a good watch. You can dress it up or dress it down. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, hoodie or or like full sports coat and everything. That's right. Um, I think you're the first guest we've had with a hoodie on. And I love it.

SPEAKER_03 58:34

I think I don't know if you can see it on camera, but it says Atlanta influences everything. Yeah. Um where can I get one of BAME Joiner? So go to his website, AIE. Um, they just opened up a store at the airport. Um I've I've really enjoyed uh we haven't talked a lot about like center culture, which is our our kind of cult arts and culture movement here at the building. You know, we've invested over a million dollars with local artists, um including them, uh Ned Abghari, uh Asha Advisory, like anyone looking to do stuff in the city where you want to bring in art, like call them. They're awesome. And their whole team has helped us really curate what's going to be 10 pieces around the project, all done locally by really famous um artists. Uh I got to meet uh an artist named Dr. Dax a couple times. He's incredible. He did the giant mural you see right when you walk in on the on the south entrance there. Um uh hence put a piece over you see on the outside facing the convention center side, uh beautiful mural. It's um but yeah, I thought this was appropriate given we're sitting in our building and and and we're talking about Atlanta and and I just have a huge amount of respect for that. And I think bringing these bringing these creatives into the project and it really helps us like feel like it's more than just a building. Right. It's it's it's really fun. It's I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 59:50

We were talking earlier, so there's the Atlanta ATL Culture House. Yeah, and then there's ATL House.

SPEAKER_03 59:55

Yeah, so the so the city's effort, A ATL Culture House, which is on the eighth floor of the North Tower. Uh we did a press conference on that last week um where the mayor announced it. And um really exciting. They're gonna have several events during the month of World Cup where people can come in, you know, participate in kind of the arts and culture of Atlanta and really showcase all the things that a lot of these um creatives do in our city and the amazing work that's getting done. And then ATL House, who's gonna be sort of the hospitality center for uh for World Cup, for Metro Chamber and various city officials, things like that. Um, and then our project, Center Culture, it's a lot of different names, but then center culture is what I just described earlier, which is really our kind of curated effort to work with um, you know, a bunch of different artists, uh local artists to really infuse the kind of culture and art scene into the project. Because we really think like this project, um, like our niche within this downtown ecosystem is is we're the common ground, like we're the place you show up and and you can meet people. And by the way, in a couple days, and you guys see it first because you're here, uh a couple weeks, we're gonna be installing two-story tall ATL letters that will sit where the old CNN letters were. So it'll be vertically stacked ATL, worked with SCAD to build them. They're gonna be wrapped in this incredible piece of art, and they're gonna have digital faces on the letters. So literally two stories tall. So I think that'll be a big place to take a picture. Yeah. Um any renderings? Have y'all you've probably seen some pictures we've released about the south entrance that show the ATL letters. What we're installing is more magnificent than what's in those pictures. And so that'll be coming here in a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:30

Um we'll have to get a picture to like put it into play. For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um that's all exciting. Yeah. Okay, so let me get this right. ATL House. ATL House, and then Center Center Culture. Center culture. That's ATL Culture House. ATL Culture House. And then ATL House.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:46

Okay. And then we also host FIFA's volunteer headquarters here. Yeah, I heard that. So they're they're down. Have you seen the space? I have not. Okay. So yeah, we can do we can do a little walk. The um they took about 30,000 feet down on the first floor of the building. Um, it's where all the volunteers kind of get hired and just base camp for them uh during World Cup. So that's super exciting. We're proud of that partnership. Um we're opening up a m a FIFA merch store that'll be in here for the World Cup. We've got you know the 11 food concepts we mentioned earlier with with um uh with Center Food Works. Uh it's this place is gonna be a whole new universe, and and you've seen the improvements, but no one really has seen those because we haven't unveiled it yet. Uh uh. But the whole atrium has been redone. Um it's a new place.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:27

I got two questions about it. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:29

Uh the renderings I saw for the center. Wait, obviously you had the the bar in it, but there was this huge chandelier thing that was from the ceiling.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:38

That's not there. Okay. We've reprogrammed that. Okay. I think that was always just sort of a architectural placeholder. Yeah. Um we will have something there. Yeah. It won't be what you see in that picture.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That seemed I was like, that's beautiful, but it was a lot. Yeah. Um second thing is uh what's the latest on the Ted Turner apartment? I know you all have kind of cleaned it up a bit, but yeah, you've been up there.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:00

Um and so it's um, yeah, I think I think look, it's such a cool spot. And it's um we've looked at it a hundred different ways as you can imagine to be like, how do we activate this to let like kind of the public realm in? Yeah and it's really hard to do because of the access to it. You know, it's it's a two-story tall spiral staircase to get into it, which is kind of one way, yeah. It's it's which is kind of wild to think that's how he would go into his apartment and leave every day. Um I feel like I get vertigo every time I go up and down it. Uh but just keeps going. But yeah, so I think we're gonna, we're gonna the plan is to restore it. Um we want it to feel like you know, he just stepped out and you kind of snuck into his apartment. Um and it'll be a gathering place for you know friends and friends and family and and you know people like you to come by and hang out, and maybe we could do some filming up there one time. Uh but yeah, it's it's it's unfortunately just because of the access, you can't really make it compliant with what needs to be done from a uh access standpoint. And so it'll just be a kind of an artifact here. Um a little sneak away.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:57

Y'all could do a model of Ted and his robe and coffee. I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:01

I just like every time I'm up there, I just imagine him like walking around in his robe on the sports. Because it was the sports and marketing floor. Have you watched the The Call Me Teddy? Uh I read the book. I haven't seen it. Yeah, so the documentary is incredible. And they actually show footage of the the floor that's the 14th floor of it was the sports marketing desk, and then you just have this door in the hallway that leads you up to his apartment. It looks like a closet. It looks like a closet.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:22

Yeah, it's just it's like that's his apartment right there. Yeah, man. Uh well, cool. I'm I'm excited to see. We've I know you all have your own approvals, and I I think for the longest time you were like didn't want to show anything. Maybe that was your PR team that didn't want to show anything, but we'd love to show it off to the to the world.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:38

And yeah, I didn't I it was funny, I watched the episode and you were like, we can't show the inside of it, and I was like, why not? So I I we didn't know either. Yeah, I don't know. So I don't let's let's fix that. If we both don't know why, then we can probably figure that out. Maybe there's a reason I'm not be I'm not being told. Yeah, yeah. Uh but um but yeah, no, I think um look, I mean, we're opening this place up, so like let's go. Yeah, like it's time. Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

Um, Chris, thanks thanks for coming down, man. This has been really awesome. Thanks for sharing your story and your career, and um just thanks for what you're doing to Atlanta and and uh all the things that are coming.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:06

Thank you. And likewise, it's um it's a it's a pleasure to be here and uh thank you for inviting me. We're thrilled you're here at the center. Like I said, like keep it rolling. You guys are you guys are doing a great job. The team behind the camera here is doing a great job. Like let us know, we can help.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:21

Okay. We'll do, man. Thanks for coming. Thank you. This is great.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:24

Appreciate it all.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:25

Um all right, y'all. Thanks for tuning in. Uh we have a couple more episodes for season two, and we've got a a walk through at Centenniards. And I don't know, Chris, should we just go grab the cameras and go walk around the TEDs and a couple other things here while you're here? Maybe. Put you on the spot. Yeah. We'll figure it out. All right, thanks, y'all.