Background

Ballantyne Corporate Park (Charlotte, NC)

Wells Hill was engaged by The Bissell Companies, the private developer, owner and operator of Ballantyne Corporate Park in Charlotte, NC, to examine various strategies for the divestment of the Park and to implement the strategy that best meets Bissell’s objectives.  Ballantyne Corporate Park is a 530-acre master-planned office park embedded within the 2,000-acre Ballantyne community located 15 miles outside of the Charlotte CBD.  The Park comprises approximately 40 Class-A office buildings totaling roughly 4.5 million square feet leased to over 300 tenants, including multiple Fortune 500 companies, 4 branded hotel properties, 8 structured parking lots, an 18-hole golf course, free standing retail and over 2 million square feet of additional entitled development rights for office, residential and hotel uses.  After exploring several alternative strategies, Wells Hill assisted Bissell in executing the sale of largely the entire Park through a targeted and competitive marketing process that identified Northwood Investors as the buyer after a series of negotiations that included multiple interested parties.  An integral component of the sale from each of Bissell’s and Northwood’s perspective was Northwood’s retaining Bissell’s office and hotel operating platforms, including nearly all 600 employees. The sale produced the highest price ever achieved for a real estate transaction in the history of Charlotte.