Real estate notes: Avenue owners call in local leasing help

Also: Tower Investments' in-house downtown deal

Email | Print By Kyle Swenson

Regional development powers Faison Enterprises and Cousins Properties have brought in Eakin Partners and an independent broker to help them fill up The Avenue Murfreesboro.

Mike McGuffin, the managing director of Nashville-based Eakin's retail division, will work on securing tenants with Chad Atwood, a former former Weston Cos. broker who also has spent time with The Staubach Co. and JDN Realty Corp.

McGuffin and Atwood will lease from Nashville, while the owners will continue to lease Avenue from Atlanta, where Cousins is based. Faison has its home base in Charlotte.

In a statement announcing the combined effort, Atwood said the team's aim is “to focus on those tenants in the Nashville/Cool Springs area who may want to broaden their reach to the Murfreesboro community.”

The open-air Avenue opened in late 2007 and features 810,000 square feet of space. Among its headline tenants are Belk, Barnes & Noble and Dick's Sporting Goods. A year ago, the center was about 80 percent leased, but among the holes its owners and brokers now have to fill is the space home to Linens N' Things, which has said it will liquidate.

Tower passes along Merchants building

At first glance, this deal suggested one of downtown's most active property buyers in recent years was retreating. But Tower Investments isn't going anywhere.

The California-based family holding company recently completed an internal transaction to hand over the building housing popular dining spot Merchants to a California subsidiary.

Los Angeles-based DM Realty bought the building at 401 Broadway from Tower for $4.5 million. Tower three years ago paid a little more than $2.1 million for the site.