California investors buy Brentwood office building

May 23, 2016

The Tennessean
by Getahn Ward

A Newport Beach, Calif.-based investment management firm has paid $58.2 million for Cool Springs Commons in Brentwood, marking its first purchase of a Nashville-area office building on behalf of clients.

“We normally don’t purchase office buildings, but Cool Springs in an interesting office environment because of the low vacancy and high demand,” said Josh Martin, CEO and chief investment officer with Emerald Real Estate Partners, which was backed in the acquisition by two California family offices.

Only 0.7 percent of office space in the Cool Springs office submarket was vacant at the end of the recent first quarter, according to a tracking by commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Nashville.

At 7100 Commerce Way, the just more than 300,000-square-foot Cool Springs Commons is fully occupied. Hospital chain Community Health Systems occupies roughly two-thirds of the building. Windsor Health Group, which is part of WellCare Health Plans Inc., is the tenant for about 35,000 square feet of space.

Martin said Emerald Real Estate bought the building for its clients as a long-term hold.

“We’re long-term value investors,” he said, adding that more acquisitions are likely. “We’re always in the market looking.”

If Martin’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he and his family in recent years purchased other properties around Nashville. They include the Gulch-area building that’s occupied by Chauhan Ale & Masala House.

Brokers Perry Gooch and Robby Davis of Cushman & Wakefield represented the selling group of individual tenant-in-common investors sponsored by Richmond, Va.-based commercial real estate asset management firm Allegiancy in the transaction.