Patriot Midtown Park, Birmingham, AL

Challenge

Originally developed as the regional headquarters for SouthTrust Bank, the 45-acre campus encompassing 200, 210, & 220 Wildwood Parkway had been transferred via multiple bank mergers before Wells Fargo took ownership in 2008.  The buildings exist in the Midtown submarket, roughly 5 miles South of Birmingham, AL.

Each of the buildings represented different profiles, with Wells Fargo desiring to lease back 100%, 50%, and 0% of each, respectively.  Wells also needed time to backfill those long-term commitments as workers were scattered across all three buildings.  In compliance with Federal banking regulations, Wells also had to adhere to strict partitioning standards for any co-tenanted buildings and had numerous mission critical data processes that could not be disturbed during a transition period.

Solution

Patriot saw the high standard the class A buildings had been maintained to and believed in the underlying fundamentals of the burgeoning Midtown submarket.  Although many of the offers Wells Fargo received were for only one or two of the buildings, Patriot purchased all three.  An interim schedule was put in place to allow Wells time to backfill all of building 220 and half of building 200, while simultaneously performing upgrades to the training facilities in building 220 and securely demising the space that would be leased back in 200.

Patriot employed a capitalization strategy that only a nimble entrepreneurial company could execute.  By teaming up with both a net lease partner (building 220) and a value-add partner (buildings 200 & 210), Patriot was able to leverage different capital buckets to offer Wells Fargo a competitive price that fit their requirements and provide Patriot the ability to modernize the campus in anticipation of winning big leases.

Result

Patriot was able to acquire a substantial piece of a top secondary submarket with high quality assets that required little in the way of immediate repair capital.  Patriot has capitalized for substantial lobby upgrades, restroom renovations, exterior enhancements, and the construction of a fitness center.  Patriot believes it has superior assets and with an array of available floor plates ranging from 30,000 to 70,000, will offer unrivaled value to prospective tenants in the marketplace.