Atlanta Hotel Market Booms
By the year 2010, Atlanta will have 38 additional hotels with more than 3,830 rooms. The city has seen many of its projects stagnate in the years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but the crane-spotted skyline would imply the stagnation has passed. The city has seen 12 hotels rise in 2004 and 2005 adding about 1,500 rooms, according to PKF Consulting, Inc. Atlanta has 746 hotels with 92,117 rooms. PKF knows of 53 hotels in the metropolitan Atlanta area that are either in development or in planning. Those would add 71,000 rooms. The deluge of development was prompted by solid demand. Room rates rose to $79.46 in 2005 from $77.47 in 1998, signaling a demand upswing.

Big Rent Hikes in Downtown NYC Future?
There’s a sign of significant rent rate increases in lower Manhattan. New York and federal government officials are negotiating leases with initial rents of $59/sf for space at the Freedom Tower downtown. By comparison, downtown’s going rate in the second quarter was $35.18/sf, and Moody’s Investor Services will pay an estimated low-$40s/sf in it lease at 7 World Trade Center. New York’s Office of General Services in negotiating for 415,000 sf at Freedom Tower, and the federal General Services Administration is negotiating for 600,000 sf. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is building the tower.

Luxury Apartments Seen in NYC’s Chinatown
New York’s Chinatown is emerging as a high-end residential real estate market. Long known for providing mainly tenement housing for immigrants, apartment rents and sale prices there are getting more in line with the rest of New York and development/construction activity is strong. At least five high-end condominium buildings have opened in Chinatown in the last two years and about eight more are under construction or in planning. Some units are selling for as much as $3 million and rents are well above $1,000/sf.

Chicago Office Space Priced Below Market
A 523,389-square-foot office portion of One N. State Street, a 16-story building in downtown Chicago, is on the market. A purchase price was not disclosed, but the property is expected to command roughly $40 million, about $131/sf. Such a price would be less than the $212/sf average for office properties in the Central Loop, according to Real Capital Analytics. But One N. State is only 48% leased, and that space generates below-market rate rents - $22/sf, compared with the $28/sf average for Central Loop properties pegged by Reis, Inc.

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