Real estate vets aim to ‘reinvent’ properties

Forum Development Group co-founder Ron Pfohl and The Griffin Cos. President Kirk Demetrops are launching their new firm, MidCity Real Estate Partners Inc. The partnership was forged as Atlanta building owners face pressure to restructure debt on many of their properties as the job market slows leasing and rents and values continue to fall. The situation is creating opportunities for firms like MidCity Real Estate Partners to buy buildings and developments that are struggling to lease up in the current market. Originally Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Read More...

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Law Firm in talks for Terminus lease

Greenberg Traurig LLP is looking at Buckhead’s Terminus 200 office tower, where it could sign at least a 125,000-square-foot lease. Cousins Properties Inc., owner of the 25-story tower, has entered the early stages of negotiations with the law firm, a source familiar with the situation confirmed… Forum Development Group co-founder Ron Pfohl and The Griffin Cos. President Kirk Demetrops are launching their new firm, MidCity Real Estate Partners Inc. The partnership was forged as Atlanta building owners face pressure to restructure debt on many of their properties as the job market slows leasing and rents and values continue to fall. The situation is creating opportunities for firms like MidCity Real Estate Partners to buy buildings and developments that are struggling to lease up in the current market. Originally Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Read More...

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Future looks uncertain for developer Griffin Co.

The Griffin Co., the Sandy Springs-based real estate development company, apparently is going through a potential reorganization at the least and could be dissolved, according to rumors on the street, after the unexpected death of founder Joel Griffin in late February. Among the rumors in the past week were that the company’s office was being closed, that there had been many layoffs and that Kirk Demetrops, who was named president of the company last fall, was no longer running the company… Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...

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Developer Griffin dies at 62

A great visionary. Committed to his community. A true professional. An engaging, self-made man. A tremendous dreamer. Those were terms used to describe fifth-generation Atlantan and Sandy Springs civic and business leader Joel Justin Griffin, 62, who died of a heart attack at home Feb. 27. Griffin started Sandy Springs-based The Griffin Co. in 1975 to develop neighborhood shopping centers. In the early 1980s, the company pioneered office condominiums and developed six office condominium parks, totaling more than 850,000 square feet, and the landmark 20-story, 350,000-square-foot office condominium The Peachtree in Midtown… Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...

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Shipping firm forwards city $20M gift: Its Headquarters

JAS Forwarding Worldwide has purchased a 6.34-acre site on Barfield Road in Sandy Springs from The Griffin Co. for the relocation of its North American and worldwide headquarters from College Park south of Atlanta. The site, which is part of the former Cosmopolitan North office complex, includes three buildings at 6165, 6195 and 6205 Barfield Road that will be renovated — including new exteriors, building systems and interiors — for the freight-forwarding company’s 90,000-square-foot headquarters. Griffin Construction Services Inc., which along with its parent, The Griffin Co., is based at 800 Mount Vernon Highway in Sandy Springs, will be the general contractor of the more than $20 million state-of-art JAS corporate campus project, which will include the three two-story buildings, a walking and jogging trail, and lodging for some business travelers. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of this year… Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...

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