Volume 4, May 2013

Deal of the Issue - The Lucas Group

Joel and Granot Real Estate recently closed a transaction with the Lucas Group for their new corporate headquarters in Atlanta. The Lucas Group is a leading executive recruitment firm in North America that serves mid-tier to Fortune 500 clients and will relocate this summer to a higher profile building -- Atlanta Plaza. Alan and Dan were able to leverage a unique deal for the Lucas Group. With a 2016 expiration date on their current lease, JGRE aided the Lucas Group in terminating the contract and allowed the firm to walk away from its existing location with minimal penalty fees. The new space is the ideal location that will allow the company to meet their expectations of growth in the years to come.

      CONTENTS

	Featured Transaction: Lucas Group, new corporate headquarters in Buckhead
	Atlanta Tops List for Best U.S. Infrastructure
	CORFAC International News: Dan is the Affiliation Chairperson for 2013
	JGRE Outside the Office: Coaching Youth Sports
	JGRE Outside the Office Take 2: Louisville vs. Michigan
	Featured Property: 1611 Ellsworth
	Atlanta: Nerd Capital of the U.S. (really)
	Up Close with Agent Dave Smith
	Atlanta Expected to Keep Growing
	Let's Take a Walk with Dan
	What is Most Important to Tenants
	Tenant Tips

#1  Atlanta Tops List for Best U.S. Infrastructure

The Mercer 2012 Quality of Living Survey listed Atlanta as the top U.S. city with the best infrastructure and was 13th overall among 221 cities ranked across the globe.
Mercer’s recent survey included its first ever survey of cities with the best infrastructure based on electrical supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transportation and the range of international flights from local airports.

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Dan is the CORFAC International Affiliation Development Chairperson for 2013

Principal Dan Granot was recently appointed CORFAC’s (Corporate Facility Advisors) Affiliation Development Chairperson for 2013. He will be spearheading the charge for CORFAC to expand its footprint throughout the country.  Dan is responsible for identifying new members, researching submarket opportunities and conducting in-person interviews with prospective new CORFAC associates – which may explain why the first market that Dan has identified for a new CORFAC office is in Hawaii! The primary goal of this volunteer position is to help CORFAC establish a presence in the 50 largest real estate markets in the United States (CORFAC is in 43 of them now).

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JGRE Outside the Office Take 2:
Louisville vs. Michigan

We asked for it, you came through. We have even more Spring Break pictures—starting with a shot of the Final Four Championship Game (Louisville vs Michigan) taken by Joel & Granot's Alan Joel. Alan won exclusive seats at the Braden Fellman Group's broker luncheon last week at Wagon Works BBQ. (The only raffle he had ever won earlier was a crockpot.)

Featured Property: 1611 Ellsworth

For the past three years associate Bill Ward has been the lead manager for the 1611 Ellsworth Industrial Blvd. property. The 203,000-square-foot building is currently home to seven different tenants including: Restaurant Equipment Services, Light Bulb Depot, Ala Mode Furniture, Horizon Home, Le Fais Do-Do, Vebo Stone Design, and Garden Patch.

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JGRE Outside the Office and on the Field....Gridiron...Pool

For many years the JGRE team has been exercising their skill and donating their time in more places than just the commercial real estate world. The lively bunch has been coaching youth sports teams all over the city of Atlanta.

For eight years Dan Granot coached all three of his daughters’ Top Hat soccer teams, in both the fall and spring seasons.

Dan is not the only JGRE member on the sidelines of the soccer field, for the past four years Dave Smith has been coaching the Ravenous Dogs through the AYSA Soccer League. This year he led his daughter Caroline’s team to a 6-1-1 season.

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Let's Take a Walk with Dan

Determined to become more efficient and energetic at the work place, Dan has taken a whole new meaning to the term multi-tasking. Inspired by Michael Lipsey, with the Lipsey Group at the SIOR conference, Dan has added the Treadmill Desk to his office at JGRE. Seen in action, Dan can negotiate business deals all the while burning calories. With productivity on his mind, Dan will be walking his way to a successful and busy 2013!

Dan will be putting the desk to good use in the upcoming year. Keep moving Dan!

No. 1: Atlanta
Atlanta boasts five sci-fi and fantasy conventions a year, and the most video stores per population (one for every 16,016 residents). The city also has the most bookstores per population and the most LARPers (live action role-players).  As such, these 'nerd factor' data points landed Atlanta at the top of this distinguished list of American cities – even beating out the country's tech center city in Silicon Valley - San Jose, which ranked a lowly No. 9, with Portland, Seattle, Sacramento and Minneapolis rounding out the top five.

Real estate firm Movoto LLC created the list, crunching data like number of annual comic book and video game conventions, people per computer and bookstore, and people per science museum, among other stats.

For over a decade Dave Smith has played a vital role in contributing to the success of both Alan Joel Partners, and more recently Joel and Granot Real Estate. Having worked with Alan for 11 years this upcoming July, Dave’s knowledge of commercial real estate in Atlanta has grown exponentially. As a Vice President of JGRE, some of Dave’s current listings include: 1429 Fairmont Ave an 80,000 square foot industrial building in the Chattahoochee Market; 471 10th St – four-unit multifamily property in Midtown, and 760 Confederate Ave – 4,500 square feet neighborhood retail in Grant Park. His most notable deal in 2012 was the sale of a 36,000-square-foot building on 1071 Howell Mill Rd.

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According to the recent ‘Metro Magnets Index’ produced by Pitney Bowes Software, the metropolitan areas of Houston, Atlanta and Washington D.C. are expected to add the most households in absolute terms over the next five years.

Between 2012 and 2017, Houston is forecast to grow by 141,000 households, while Atlanta is expected to add 106,000 and D.C. 84,000 new households.  On a percentage basis, these three regions should grow by 6.7%, 5.4% and 5.0%, respectively.

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Determining your priorities is a key to finding the right office space for your company. A full needs analysis is critical in the beginning of the process to make sure you are looking for what you need. Abacus Office Finder in the UK has been doing an ongoing survey to determine what matters most when selecting office space for rent. Here is what they came up with:

• Location 57%

• Value 25%

• Image 16%

"Based on my 30+ year of experience in the business, location is almost always the top priority in locating a business but there are many variables that come in to play, including business strategy, staffing or recruiting issues and many more, but I would say that this is pretty accurate," said Alan Joel.

When you lease commercial office space, the process included negotiating with the property owner to establish what will be contained in your lease.  Having a basic knowledge of the pitfalls to avoid and the opportunities to save money will make the task much less arduous for you.

Successful Negotiation Tactics for Your Office Space Lease: Part 1
Successful Negotiation Tactics for Your Office Space Lease: Part 2