vol. XVII no. 1

				Housing continued "Downtown is the submarket that represents Atlanta," Bowers notes. "When you consider government, it's the largest office market in the city. It's also an entertainment district with well over 40,000 daily visitors on average, Because of its infrastructure and central location, I think downtown has the best future of any submarket. Right now, it may be the most convenient location to get to in the city." He sees the type of oversupply Rabianski talks about. ''The whole city right now is overbuilt.'' says Bowers, citing the millions of feet of office space left behind when BellSouth moved into its City Center location and bankruptcies that have plagued some Atlanta businesses. As a result, Bowers says, "The amount of square footage available is going to be extremely favorable to users, Surprisingly, though, as compared to 10 years ago, the urban corridor has a much higher occupancy rates and a much higher rental rate than the suburbs, In fact, downtown right now has the highest occupancy level of any of the six largest submarkets. Over the next five to 10 years, the urban corridor is going to outperform the suburbs and I think the south side and the airport area have some real potential.'' Bowers, who earned his undergraduate degree at West Point and rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Army before earning his MBA in real estate and finance from Georgia State University, sold the 6.7-acre Beaudry Ford property at Piedmont and Ellis to the GSU Foundation for construction of a new dormitory in a transaction named Land Deal of the Year by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Bowers credited his alma mater with sprucing up downtown. "Georgia State has really taken the lower end of downtown and contributed highly to the re-utilization and vibrancy of that area of the city" he remarks. "Downtown is significantly better than it was 10 years ago. Surprisingly, a number of downtown restaurants are doing better than their suburban counterparts." Rabianski, who has a wide view of downtown from his 14th floor office, says the city needs to find more ways to attract families of conventioneers and to build downtown into more of an entertainment center. He echoed Bowers' concerns about Atlanta traffic. The professor said the Atlanta office market has an Achilles' heel with what he called "qualify of life issues" such as traffic congestion and the bad press the state gets for its school problems, particularly in an era when Atlanta's rents are beginning to approach the level charged in Chicago and New York. The problems with school quality are of particular concern to companies looking for employees who are able to relocate. Rabianski believes the region will address the problem with solutions that include a light rail connection between the Galleria and the Perimeter Rabianski also noted that the residential real estate market remains vulnerable to unexpected shocks to the economy, such as the 1973 oil embargo, during which gasoline prices soared 170 percent in three days, from 32.9 cents to 89.9 cents a gallon. "Any kind of shock like that affects the purchasing decision", he says. Top | Back to Beginning Back to main "A Sign of Four" page.

Copyright © 2004 Robinson College of Business/Georgia State University.