Cherokee County: Wide Open Office Spaces

Demand for office space in Cherokee County is convincing developers to pursue several new projects, industry officials say.

New and planned complexes – including upper end office buildings and professional office condominiums – are in the works as the local commercial real estate market appears to show sustained demand is continuing as office space has filled in developments built in recent years, the officials said.

Confidence in the market has some developers launching speculative projects ahead of signing up tenants and buyers.

New speculative Class A buildings are planned for Canton Commerce Center, a business park located near Interstate 575 by the Canton-Cherokee Business & Industrial Park. Office condos are opening near neighborhoods and shopping centers on corridors, miles beyond the county’s cities.

Industrial buildings with offices with brick and glass fronts are also planned in the county, including new buildings in I-575/Airport Industrial Park.

Broker Brad Nix of Maxsell Real Estate said many of the buyers and tenants of office condos he represents are professionals, including doctors, engineers and others.

Much of the office condo space constructed in recent years he represents has been filled, including Weatherstone Office Park, which fronts Ga. 92 in eastern Woodstock and was sold out this year, Nix said.

“It should be a pretty healthy market going forward” for the next year or two, Nix said.

Among the new projects Nix represents are The Mill Office Park located on Ga. 92, Mill Creek Professional Park located on Ga. 140 in southeastern Cherokee County and River Park North near Sixes Road.

Healthcare has been a major user of office space in the county of Class A buildings, office condos and others.

The Northside-Cherokee Medical Office Building off Towne Lake Parkway near I-575, the WellStar-anchored medical office building on Stonebridge Parkway and RiverStone Medical Center in Canton were each widely considered as milestone projects for the market as it expanded from budding to established. There are various definitions of Class A in the commercial real estate industry, with high-quality design and materials typically requirements to meet the standards.

Demand for medical office space continues to be a key for the office market, according to Tommy Clay, associate broker of the Riverstone office of Keller Williams, Select Partners.

Clay is representing Canton Commerce Center. Two Class A buildings with two stories each are planned for the second phase of Canton Commerce Center, a change in plans from staying with industrial after its first phase of industrial facilities to tap into the demand for offices, Clay said. The developer is Alpharetta-based Georgia Commercial Developers LLC.

The first building will be 20,000 square feet and is slated for completion in April 2007, Clay said. The second will be 30,000 square feet, he said.

MDH Partners LLC plans to develop speculative buildings in the I-575/Airport Industrial Park
by the Exit 24 interchange, said Development Authority of Cherokee County (DACC) Executive Director Misti Martin. The four buildings will range in size from 40,000-square-feet to 60,000-square-feet, Martin said.

Site preparation has begun and the first building is scheduled for completion in 2007, Martin said.

“The buildings are all brick with glass fronts and heavy landscaping,” she said.

Phillip Hight, a senior broker for the Atlanta-based real estate company, said the timing for the industrial development appears sound.

“We feel like residential growth is to a point where we think it will support the development that we’re about to get started on,” Hight said.

The county’s overall office market has been largely driven by small and medium-sized business growth, said Martin.

The availability of constructed office and industrial space is a major boost for economic development efforts in the county, Martin said, citing reports showing the overwhelming majority of businesses searching for new locations want to move in soon into the buildings instead of waiting for construction.

“Spec buildings drive business prospects,” Martin said.

Several prospects have enquired about the Bluffs of Technology Park in Canton, the vacant former Herman Miller manufacturing facility and other commercial and industrial properties, Martin said.