Three auto-related property deals have been making news in the US this week, including Ford’s sale of its Atlanta Assembly Plant property in Hapeville, Georgia, to Jacoby Development.
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Jacoby will redevelop the 122-acre site adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport into an “aerotropolis” – an aviation-intensive business district that is expected to include office, retail, restaurant, hotel and airport parking.
Ford said it worked with the city of Hapeville, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the best use of the site but did not disclose terms of the sale.
The redevelopment of the plant site will likely have a global focus to capitalise on the airport’s future international terminal, Ford said, adding that Jacoby’s experience redeveloping large brownfield sites was an important consideration.
Atlanta Assembly opened in 1947 and built a variety of historical models including the Ford Fairlane, Fairmont, Falcon, Galaxie, Grananda, LTD, Ranchero, Torino, Thunderbird, Marquis, Sable and Taurus. It closed in October 2006.
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By GlobalDataSeparately, costar.com reported that Tishman Speyer has sold the new Volkswagen of America headquarters building in Northern Virginia to Union Investment Real Estate of Germany for US$100m.
Known as Woodland Pointe, the six-story office building was completed last year and totals 184,750 square feet. It is located on Tishman’s Woodland Park mixed-use campus in Herndon, Virginia, close to Dulles Airport and about 20 miles west of the nation’s capital, costar.com said.
Volkswagen announced last autumn it would move its American headquarters from Auburn Hills, Michigan, closer to major markets on the east Coast. The German automaker fully occupies the Woodland Pointe building with roughly 400 employees, the report said.
And the New York Post said on its website that the landmark Chrysler Building in Manhattan, New York city is “the latest Big Apple trophy being coveted by oil-rich sovereign wealth funds”.
Sources told the paper the super-rich Abu Dhabi Investment Council was negotiating an US$800m deal for a 75% stake “in the Art Deco treasure that has defined the Midtown skyline since 1930”.
The paper said the Chrysler assets would be purchased from TMW – the German arm of an Atlanta-based investment fund that’s been eager to cash out of its Chrysler stake.
The New York Post noted that the deal follows last month’s sale of the GM Building (and three other Macklowe/Equity Portfolio properties) for $3.95bn to a group of investors including the wealth funds of Kuwait and Qatar and Boston Properties.
