July 12, 2016

Two Corporate Centre Buildings Change Hands


By Melanie McKinney
– The Nashville City Paper –

Brentwood – Two of the most prominent office buildings in Cool Springs have new owners.

In a joint venture deal, Memphis-based Boyle Investment Co., and Milwaukee based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance purchased One and Two Corporate Centre for $36 million from owner J.P. Morgan Fleming.

Jeff Haynes, chief manager of Boyle’s Brentwood office, said the buildings had been on the market since September and that Boyle started working on the deal in October. He said the contract was signed last Monday.

Haynes said Boyle, which has plans to develop a 600 acre tract of land at Goose Creek Bypass at Interstate 65 and is lobbying to develop a neighborhood retail development at Concord and Sunset Roads, liked the Corporate Centre deal because it involves landmark buildings in Williamson County, an area the company considers a focus.

“They are very identifiable buildings and it certainly goes with our strategy to have Class A assets in Williamson County,” Haynes said. “We think this is essential to what we are trying to do here. We hope Williamson County sees a $36 million investment in their community as a good thing.”

He said projects like the Goose Creek development are more long-term, looking 15 years out, while this acquisition provides immediate return.

“It also gives us a really good foothold to the Cool Springs office market,” he said.

Boyle will take over management and leasing of the two buildings, which were previously controlled by Crescent Resources. Crescent still retains management and leasing for buildings three through seven across Cool Springs Boulevard.

Haynes said Boyle wasn’t planning any changes to the buildings which, he said, are 92% leased with tenants such as Connecticut General Life Insurance, General Electric Capital Corp., URS, Manchester Tank and Franklin American Mortgage Co.

Crescent has done a tremendous job and the transfer has gone very smoothly,” Haynes said. “Our goal is to replicate what Crescent has done to this point.

As for the remaining Corporate Centre buildings, J.P. Morgan Fleming owns four of the five, which at present are not for sale.

“If J.P. Morgan was to sell them, we’d have an interest in them, but it’s not in the cards anytime soon,” he said. “These two were more strategic in that they were stand alone buildings, so it was easy for us to create a separate identity.”

After opening an office in Brentwood two years ago, Boyle has continued to make acquisitions in Nashville, but has also focused on Williamson County, Haynes says, because of its demographics.

“We like Williamson County for the same reason people continue to move here,” he said. “It’s an attractive place for people to live and work. When you have residential and job growth you have a tendency to have appreciation in rents and in value. Boyle spends a lot of time on demographics because they are what make you money or what lose you money.”

Haynes said the main advantage to these buildings having a local owner is that Boyle will tend to be more of a long term owner than someone like J.P. Morgan Fleming, who strictly considered the property an investment.

“We are not a merchant builder that is going to flip a property and leave town,” Haynes said. “We are making sizeable acquisitions to demonstrate our commitment to this community.”