Page 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Upon entering the commercial real estate field, he was the top office producer at Arthur Rubloff for five
years and also worked as a leasing agent for Cousins Properties and Peachtree Corners before starting his
own firm with three people in 1980. In the past 25 years, that firm has grown to employ 120 people and has
been involved in some of the largest deals in commercial real estate in Metro Atlanta.
Among those deals was the sale of the 7.8-acre Beaudry Ford property to Georgia State for the site of
their 2,000 bed, 1.5 million square foot, student dormitory, the largest bond-financed college development
in the State of Georgia. The presence of Georgia State has solidified the Central Business District, says
Bowers, who credits President Carl Patton with rekindling his own interest in supporting the university.
In 2001, he endowed the Richard Bowers & Co. Real Estate Professorship at the Robinson College, has
served on the GSU Foundation, and he currently serves on the Robinson Board of Advisors. Paul Mendel, an
agent at Bowers & Co. serves as president of Georgia State’s alumni association, and another Bowers’
agent, Will Kilgore, has received the Association for Corporate Governance (ACG) Student Leadership
Award.
During his career, Bowers has seen greater Atlanta’s population triple from 1.5 million to 4.5 million
people. When he started in the business, Atlanta’s office market offered 30 million square feet of space
with 15 million located along the Peachtree corridor and 15 million in the suburbs. Over this time period,
the suburban office market has surged with two-thirds of the new office development taking place in
suburban Atlanta. However, in the past last five years, Bowers has noted a different trend with Downtown
and the Peachtree corridor drawing most of the new major office developments. Office projects recently
completed or under construction include the new headquarters for Southern Company; the new Regional
Headquarters for Ernst & Young, and a proposed high-rise office development at 50 Allen Plaza in
Centennial Hill. In addition to office development, there is a surge in in-town residential development
including TWELVE Centennial Place - a twin 40-story building, which will be the largest residential
development in Atlanta; W Hotel; and recently announced apartments and condominiums by Post Properties.
There are 1,833 residential units committed in Centennial Hill which is more than Beacon Hill in Boston
with more to come.
In his third-quarter 2005 office market report, Richard Bowers & Co. predicted a continued surge for
the urban corridor due to accessibility, convenience, public transportation, shorter commutes, numerous
amenities, and closer proximity to the airport. Still not as robust as the late 1990s, the Atlanta office
market remains a buyer’s market, but Bowers believes that "with continued absorption and improved
occupancy, these conditions will create an office market will be more at equilibrium and a market that
affords great opportunities for Downtown."
Continued on next page
 Previous Page | Top | Next Page 
|
