Source: al.com
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA — Graham & Co. is heading into 2012 boosted by a number of property sales and leases in the last quarter of 2011.
The Birmingham-based company completed 25 sales valued at more than $20 million and 40 lease deals with a value of $41 million in the quarter, according to Mike Graham, president of the company. That was up from the 14 sales and 33 leases completed in the third quarter.
“We are expecting the current trend to continue into 2012,” Graham said.
One of the more significant property sales in the quarter included 34 acres in the Lee Branch Corporate center near Greystone, including the 50,750-square-foot former headquarters of AIG Baker Shopping Center Properties. BBVA Compass sold the property to Church of the Highlands. Graham & Co. represented BBVA Compass.
Graham & Co. also brokered the sale of the former Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point to another faith-based group and a 3,872-square-foot office building at 1314 Cobb Lane to a new owner. Other fourth-quarter sales included a former day care, partially developed subdivisions, warehouses and other properties.
Graham noted many of the deals seem to be tied to internal or local expansion, a good sign that local companies are growing.
“We see this is a particularly healthy sign,” he said.
Leases in the fourth quarter included a 130,000-square-foot office lease in Meadowbrook and a 220,000-square-foot lease in the Jefferson Metropolitan Park-McCalla.
Dan Lovell, head of Graham’s office division, said the office market is trying to bounce back.
A net drop in occupancy of 17,870 square feet in 2011 means the overall market was virtually flat, he said, and much more stable than the 450,000 square feet of net loss in occupied space the metro area dealt with in 2009.
But Lovell noted it’s not bad everywhere.
“Some pockets of midtown are as tight as they have been in several years, therefore some owners are doing very well in this area,” he said.
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