In the weeks leading up to the blockbuster announcement that the Braves will relocate to Cobb County, investors quietly snapped up key properties around the new ballpark site, an examination by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found.
The mini buying frenzy came amid top-secret negotiations between the Braves, Cobb officials and the Maryland billionaire who owns the vacant suburban acreage that may soon be transformed into a state-of-the-art Major League Baseball stadium.
Tens of millions of dollars have changed hands since June in deals involving hotels, vacant land and office buildings. One property owner in the area said he received two unsolicited purchase offers in the past six weeks, after receiving nothing of that sort for the past year.
The rash of purchases raises questions about who knew what and when, suggesting buyers of nearby land were either incredibly lucky or incredibly connected.
“Probably more of the latter,” said Cobb Taxpayers Association Chairman Lance Lamberton, who wants the state Attorney General’s office to investigate whether anyone could be profiting improperly. “It just seems too coincidental to me. This whole thing really stinks.”
Buyers who responded to interview requests denied having advance knowledge of the Braves’ plans.
Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee has said he began talking to Atlanta Braves executives in July and that he and Brooks Mathis, a vice president of economic development for Cobb’s Chamber of Commerce, were the only two county officials privy to the secret negotiations. The county finance manager, James Pehrson, has since told the AJC that he was also in on the talks.
The property was put on the market in August, according to a broker’s listing. The Braves’ failed negotiations with Atlanta started a year and a half ago.
If an investor did get wind of the Braves’ move and snatched up properties in anticipation of higher values, that would not be illegal or even unethical. But most of the purchasers are limited liability companies whose partners and backers are not public record, and Lamberton said he wants to know if any public officials might have a stake.
Tad Leithead, chairman of the Cumberland Community Improvement District, where the properties are located, said he believes the sales show the area was already in an upswing before the stadium announcement on Monday. They don’t necessarily mean word got out in advance, he said.
But a real estate analyst who follows land transactions throughout metro Atlanta said he had already noticed something unusual happening in the Cumberland-Galleria area — an intense rash of buying beyond the signs of a recovering real estate market.
“In my experienced opinion,” Alan Wexler, CEO of Databank Inc., said, “some of these transactions are directly or secondarily connected to the Braves.”
More sales are in the works, he said, declining to give specifics because the deals involve his clients.
Among the recent acquisitions:
- The nearby Marriott hotel on the opposite side of I-75, which will be within walking distance of the stadium development via the Windy Ridge Parkway bridge. A limited liability company connected to a New York City investment firm bought it for $18.2 million on June 28.
- The Sheraton Suites hotel in front of Cumberland Mall, which another limited liability company connected to a New York City real estate firm, MPI, bought for $21 million in mid-July. The same company owns and manages Akers Mill Square less than a mile away.
- A Days Inn hotel on Circle 75 Parkway, located next door to vacant property that the Braves wants to turn into mixed-use development and parking. It was purchased Sept. 30 for $1.6 million by a limited liability company out of Tennessee, records show.
- Sixteen acres of vacant property just north of the stadium site, across Circle 75 Parkway from same area of proposed mixed-used and parking. Ryland Group bought that land for $2.6 million in August from Bernard Saul, the same Maryland real estate mogul who owns the land planned for the stadium.
Jim Parker, president of the Atlanta division of Ryland Homes, said the company plans to build a gated community of about 70 townhomes there and had no idea the baseball franchise was planning a move into the neighborhood.
“I was as surprised to learn the Braves were leaving Atlanta as anyone,” he said. “It makes it look like we were smart, but we had our eye on this for six months.”
Calls to Garrison Capital, the New York firm behind the LLC that bought the Marriott, were routed to a representative who said the firm had no advance knowledge of the stadium plans. He would not identify himself and declined to answer questions about other investors or what led to the purchase.
Calls to MPI were returned by a spokeswoman who said there are no outside investors in the LLC. She offered a written statement from the company CEO saying the Sheraton purchase was made “without any knowledge of a future baseball stadium.”
Hugh Scott III shelled out almost $45 million for three office buildings near where the ballpark will sit — a trio of high-rises along I-285. His company, Scott and Associates, closed on Oct. 23, less than four weeks before the Braves announced its move.
Scott said they had been negotiating the deal since February and were under contract in April.
“We have only just recently found this out about about the Braves,” Scott said. “We hope the stadium will have a positive impact on the area.”
Saul did not return multiple phone calls from the AJC seeking comment. Nor did his representative in Atlanta, Trey Parrish, a senior vice president with B.F. Saul Property Company and a Cumberland CID board member.
Saul, of Chevy Chase, Md., ranked No. 252 on Forbes magazine’s list of wealthiest Americans. Most of Saul’s holdings are in the Washington, D.C. area, including the luxury Hay Adams Hotel across the street from the White House.
One thing seems clear: The stadium development will inject new energy into the area. Wexler, of Databank, said values should at least double.
“I think you’ll see an increase in investment around the stadium site,” Leithead, the CID chairman, said, “in the very near future, in time for first pitch.”
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart, who played matchmaker for the deal by introducing Lee to high-ranking Braves officials, could also see a boost from the plan.
Ehrhart is partner in a sports tourism development under construction 25 miles north on I-75. LakePoint Sporting Community in Emerson, plans to host a wide variety of sports events from soccer to beach volleyball and include amenities such as lodging, a church and a movie theater for the families of student athletes. The public face of the venture is former Braves manager Bobby Cox, and his successor, Fredi Gonzalez, is also involved in the project.
Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, allowed that his business could benefit from the stadium up the road.
“Sure we could run shuttle buses to to the field and it would be closer than downtown,” he said. But he argued the stadium could also prove to be competition for LakePoint.
“Really, it’s a wash. I didn’t do this to make money. I did this because it’s good for Cobb County,” he said.
Lee and Mathis did not respond to messages Friday seeking comment about the transactions around the stadium site. Attempts to interview Atlanta Braves officials familiar with the land aquisition process were also unsuccessful.
Kris Miller, a developer and co-owner of an office complex on Circle 75, across the street from the Days Inn that sold, said he has turned down two purchase offers in recent months. He and his partners weren’t interested in selling, he said, declining to say who made the offers.
Miller said he believes some of the recent purchases are coincidental. But the three hotel purchases in such a short time period “seems like a lot.”
“I don’t see how (the stadium move) can have anything but somewhere between a positive effect,” Miller, president of Ackerman & Co., said, “and a profoundly positive effect.”
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