The Allen Morris Co. is expecting a June certificate of occupancy for its 14-story office building and is contemplating a second residential phase that it would begin in late 2021 or early 2022, the company’s chief investment officer, Spencer Morris, tells What Now Atlanta.
About Star Metals Offices, Morris said the company is in late-stage negotiations with several tenants. It agreed to lease its first big chunk of space in 2018 to co-working brand Spaces, which will occupy the office building’s seventh and eight floors, or about 56,000 square feet of the 260,000-square-foot building.
“We’re speaking to a number of large tenants right now that we’ll probably make an announcement about in the next two to three months,” Morris said.
The company is also progressing, at differing speeds, with the other parts of its Star Metals development. In all, the project will feature 409 luxury apartments, a 176-key hotel, and 60,000 square feet of retail, along with the office space. Since fully opening last month, Star Metals Residences is 30-percent leased, according to Morris.
Citing the relative strength of Atlanta’s rental market (where one-bedroom rents are up 3.5 percent year-over-year, according to Zumper) and the good start at Star Metals, Morris said the company is considering a second residential phase that would begin in the next 12 months or so. “We’re still on the fence, so that’s early in the works,” he said. “But it would probably be in the 300- to 330-unit range.” Meanwhile, the developer is expecting a third- or fourth-quarter groundbreaking on the Star Metals Hotel, according to Morris.
Though the coronavirus pandemic and at least temporary shift to remote working have presented a raft of questions about office properties, Morris said that market interest finally started to pick up by the end of 2020, and that a “future-proof office building” like Star Metals Offices is positioned well going forward. Along with wellness features, it is slated to offer a lineup of other benefits, including a bar, outdoor terrace, outdoor collaboration spaces, and restaurants.
“Most businesses know that they’re going to still need office space going forward, and, lucky for us, I think we’ve designed a building that is a future-proof office building,” Morris said.
