Real estate notes: Morgan Keegan adds Burton Hills space

Also: Law firm renews downtown lease and Memorial's locker rooms to get an overhaul

Email | Print By Geert De Lombaerde

Burton Hills II

UPDATED 11:37 a.m., March 19 – Correcting Morgan Keegan's remaining presence in One Nashville Place


Morgan Keegan is moving its downtown office to Burton Hills, where it has increased its footprint by 50 percent.

The investment firm’s 20-person fixed-income group is vacating its 16th-floor offices at One Nashville Place and will on April 28 move into 8,100 square feet in Burton Hills II. The company, a unit of Birmingham-based Regions Financial Corp. (Ticker: RF), already has about 30 people from its retail, equity research and other units in Burton Hills I.

Bo Tyler represented building owner Highwoods Properties (Ticker: HIW) in the Burton Hills negotiations. Whit McCrary, a Colliers Turley Martin Tucker broker who represented Morgan Keegan, said the firm’s commitment at Burton Hills now totals about 24,000 square feet. It is staying in a little more than 17,000 square feet on the 16th floor of One Nashville Place.

Collections firm staying in SunTrust building

After scouting other downtown properties, local collections law firm Buffaloe & Associates is staying put at the former SunTrust Bank Building, where it has resided for almost two decades.

Buffaloe, which employs 67 people, has renewed its lease for about 12,700 square feet at 201 Fourth Ave. N. for seven years. As part of the deal, it is reconfiguring its entrance and other parts of the space, work that should be complete in two months.

The 36-year-old firm also considered the Regions Center and the Fifth Third Financial Center, but Office Manager Janice Connor said the hassle of moving from a longtime home and a strong relationship with building management led it to renew.

Bruce Reed at Chas. Hawkins/CORFAC International worked the deal for Buffaloe. Greg Coleman and Rob Lowe at Colliers represented the building owner, New York-based Sterling American Property.

Coleman said the recent departure of SunTrust Bank to Eakin Properties’ SunTrust Plaza has lowered the occupancy rate of Sterling American’s 40-year-old building from 95 percent to around 50 percent. He said Sterling is investing in various upgrades to help fill the empty space.

Parent to revamp Memorial

And from the Metro building permit files: With Vanderbilt's basketball teams hitting the road for their NCAA tourneys, The Parent Co. has pulled a $2 million permit to renovate the locker rooms at the university's Memorial Gymnasium.