AmREIT Eyes High-Rise Densification of Buckhead Center Just Acquired for $28 Million

HOUSTON— AmREIT Inc., a Houston-based REIT, is considering a high-rise redevelopment of a Buckhead shopping center it has purchased in Atlanta.

AmREIT may be pursuing in Atlanta the same densification strategy is it pursuing in Houston’s Uptown District – tearing down one-story retail and replacing it with high-rise office, hotel or condo towers.

AmREIT paid $28 million to acquire Tuxedo Festival Shopping Center in Buckhead in the Buckhead submarket of Atlanta, a 54,643 square foot shopping center located on 3.96 acres in the Buckhead submarket of Atlanta.

The center is located on Roswell Road, just south of Chastain Park and just north of Piedmont Center in affluent Buckhead, at the intersection of Roswell Road, Piedmont Road and Old Ivy Road.

Tuxedo Festival benefits from over 48,800 households within a three-mile radius of the property, daytime employment within the same radius of over 109,000, and average household income of over $130,800 within a one-mile radius, according to Sites U.S.A. Tuxedo Festival is 87 percent occupied with tenants including Regions Bank, Zoe’s Kitchen, and Flip Burger.

Kerr Taylor, AmREIT’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are very pleased with the acquisition of Tuxedo Festival – a jewel in Buckhead that epitomizes our trademark of an Irreplaceable Corner. Its location serves the most affluent Buckhead neighborhoods and some of the densest concentrations of commercial real estate in the Southeast. This exciting new investment will immediately grow cash flow and net operating income, while creating longer term opportunities to potentially capitalize on the 440,000 SF of maximum development density, which could include high rise residential, office, additional retail and parking.”

AmREIT was subject to a takeover appeal by Regency Centers, but it rejected a $22 per share offer. Jacksonville-based Regency says its still interested in a combination of the companies.