At a time when most real estate developers are specializing to maintain an edge in the marketplace, Regent Partners is taking the broad-based approach to commercial real estate, remaining diversified in the acquisition and development of residential, retail, office, hotel, land, military housing and mixed-use projects.

Why? When the company was formed in 1991, it focused primarily on acquisitions — where the value-added plays were, according to David Allman, president of the company. In the mid-1990s, when the value-added opportunities moved more into the development arena, Regent transitioned into a diversified development company and has been there ever since.

“We defined ourselves as being opportunistic, value-added investors,” says Allman. “And where the opportunity comes from is a broader range of product types, which shift over time based upon market conditions within a particular sector. If we felt like we had the ability to identify, assess and execute certain opportunities, then we followed the path of opportunity, and that, over time, expanded our portfolio of product type.”

In terms of regional focus, product type has a big influence on where the company demonstrates its capabilities. Most active in the hotel, office and multifamily arenas, Regent Partners has acquired and developed more than 10 million square feet of property valued in excess of $1 billion. The company’s multifamily development has been focused in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Texas; office development has centered primarily in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, while hotel development has had more of a national focus.

“Office development has a strong, local component to it — local knowledge, local engagement,” notes Allman. “So that has more of a local and limited focus. The hotel business is not local in the way that office is, so we’ve done hotels in the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and Southwest.”

Regent Partners’ highest profile project is Tower Place, a property located in Buckhead, Atlanta’s premier residential, retail and office district. Since assuming the property, which originally housed a hotel, a college building and several retail establishments, Regent Partners has completely transformed the site, refurbishing the existing buildings, adding streetscapes and enhancing the green space around the complex.

Situated on 26 acres in the “new heart of Buckhead,” the complex now includes three office buildings with 1 million square feet of space; 165,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space, including unique eateries, Buckhead’s largest health club and a movie house; 2,875 parking spaces; and 418 rooms in two premier hotels: The Courtyard by Marriott and The DoubleTree Hotel.

Currently under development is a 35-story, high-rise residential tower called The Regent at Tower Place, featuring six premium penthouses and 280 one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Scheduled for completion in 2004, the sleek, all-glass high-rise will be situated on 1.75 acres and will be joined to sister buildings Tower Place 100 and 200 by a lushly landscaped pedestrian park with winding sidewalks, fountains and sculptured art. Complementing The Regent from a transportation infrastructure point-of-view is an intra-district shuttle that will connect the high-rise to the office buildings, hotels, malls and restaurants of Buckhead, as well as MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) transit stations.

“As we look to the future, we think that adding residential to this part of Buckhead is probably the most important component in order to continue the transformation of this area into a live/work/play type of environment,” notes Allman.

In fact, Allman, who is also chairman of the Buckhead Community Improvement District, is spearheading the transformation of Peachtree Road — the thoroughfare that runs through the hub of Buckhead’s commercial district — into a more pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

“When this project is completed in 2005, Buckhead will look and function dramatically different from a streetscape, pedestrian point-of-view. And I think what that will do, as it relates to The Regent, is greatly enhance the quality of life from not just an office user, but a residential user point-of-view.”
Regent Partners actually became involved in the hospitality side of the business as a passive investor when it acquired Tower Place. The company then invested in a couple of other hotels with active developers.

“At that point, we decided that we either needed to be an active developer in the business or we needed to get out of it, because it’s a very complex business,” says Reid Freeman, vice president of Regent’s hospitality division. “So we got into it in a much bigger way in the mid- to late-90s, and since then, as the company has evolved, it’s been one of the three or four areas we’ve tried to focus on.” Currently, Regent Partners has two hotel projects underway in Texas.

In the multifamily arena, Regent, like several national developers, is pursuing military housing — a market segment that earned the company the first major privatized U.S. Army military housing contract in the United States in 1999. The first privatization project is now underway at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Regent is continuing to pursue more military housing opportunities throughout the country.

“There is a recognition that, through privatization, military housing could be done better, more quickly and more cost effectively,” explains Allman. “We think it will have a very beneficial impact on the quality of life of military families and be more in keeping with the kind of housing they deserve.”

Allman also notes that in addition to its development arm, Regent Partners has strategic land holdings that are involved in controlling at least a component of the projects the company will be developing in the future, which is an important point for a developer.

“It’s a lot easier to control the processes if you control the land,” he notes. “And we have substantial land holdings to foster our development plans.”

Regent Partners is a wholly owned subsidiary of J.A. Jones Inc., a worldwide company founded in 1890 and headquartered in Charlotte. Through its affiliation with J.A. Jones Inc., the company has gained access to a global continuum of resources in development, engineering, construction, finance, operations, maintenance and information technologies.

©2002 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.