Working across asset types, scales and geographies, Agora Partners formulates optimal strategies to harvest value from unique opportunities.
HOUSING BUILDOUT ANALYSIS, Northampton, MA
Agora Partners is providing planning, market, and development analysis to the City of Northampton, Massachusetts, in an effort to understand and capitalize upon the market realities of recent upzoning legislation. Agora is assessing full build-out test-fit scenarios possible under the new legislation against market demand by utilizing analyses of demographic trends, local and regional real estate metrics, comparable case studies and best practices for development. With insight gained from this analysis, Agora will provide a development feasibility study for prototypical sites in Northampton, with the goal of illustrating the gap opportunity between what can be accommodated through regulations and market realities.
MIXED-USE UNIVERSITY-ADJACENT, Northridge, CA
Symphony Development and Agora Partners acquired a leased 12,500-square-foot postal facility on 1.54 acres located one block from the 350-acre California State University - Northridge (CSUN) campus. As the third-largest public university in the state, the university’s master development plan forecasts an annual growth rate of more than 1 percent annually over the next 20 years, underpinning the need for new development in the area to meet this growing demographic. The site's substantial frontage on Reseda Boulevard, dense infill location, existing income stream and proximity to CSUN positions the property to benefit from strong economic drivers and an overall lack of retail and housing amenities.
HATCH @ LA Bioscience Corridor, Los Angeles, CA
Agora Partners and ASG Real Estate are redeveloping a 22,000 square foot, 80-year-old former furniture factory and warehouse into HATCH, a bioscience workspace. The site is located within the boundary of the Los Angeles Bioscience Corridor, a 4-mile stretch of Northeast Los Angeles that weaves together key bioscience and tech institutions and companies, and is directly across the street from a popular independent community coffee and arts spot. Responding to the lack of options bioscience startups face once they outgrow the incubator phase, the re-imagined double bow truss, high-ceiling space will become a home for emerging bioscience and tech companies seeking modern, flexible workspaces. Stay up to date on Agora’s blog as we progress through the redevelopment.
NEW YORK CITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, New York, NY
Agora Partners is providing Real Estate Development Analysis to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) on an on-call basis. Utilizing Agora’s expertise in comprehensive real estate market studies across industrial, residential and commercial markets, the firm will uncover opportunities for real estate and economic development. In conjunction with the insight gained from the analysis, Agora will specifically look at the impact of regulations on market demand, as well as examine citywide projects in the pipeline to determine their contribution to economic development. Agora’s goal is to ensure best practices for real estate and economic development, as well as citywide sustainability, identifying opportunities for development and minimizing regulatory inefficiencies.
ALA MOANA BEACH PARK, Honolulu, HI
As part of the BRV team, Agora Partners is assessing options to address deferred and ongoing operations and maintenance at Ala Moana Beach Park, "The People's Park" of Honolulu. With decades of history amidst a spectacular landscape of oceanfront greenspace and downtown and mountain views, Ala Moana Park is feeling the pressures of age and an encroaching downtown core. Through comprehensive asset management, Ala Moana Park is and will continue to be the central gathering space of Honolulu.
CONFIDENTIAL OPPORTUNITY FUND, New York, NY
As part of an ongoing relationship, Agora Partners provided real estate expertise to a $1.5 billion opportunity fund based in New York City. Focusing mainly on the acquisition of distressed debt and selectively issuing debt, Agora Partners participated in sourcing and analyzing opportunities by leveraging experience across property types and through industry-wide networks. Individual and portfolio-level acquisitions analysis of value-add office, retail, residential, industrial and hospitality investments spanned the United States and ranged in size from approximately $2 million to $50 million.
SALT LAKE CITY CORPORATION, Salt Lake City, UT
Agora Partners provided technical assistance to the Housing and Neighborhood Development Division for Community and Economic Development (CED) at the Salt Lake City Corporation. Through comprehensive review of city-owned property, Agora Partners worked with CED leadership to identify entrepreneurial alternatives to typical redevelopment scenarios. Agora Partners provided assistance on investment and development strategies through unique partnerships or dispositions. The final outcome of Salt Lake City Corporation includes development alternatives and proposals for those properties deemed capable of providing transformative citybuilding opportunities.
STARLAND DESIGN DISTRICT, Savannah, GA
Acting on behalf of a private family office, Agora Partners led the acquisition, asset management, development strategy and disposition for a series of properties purchased from an institutional fund partnership. The subject property required complex lease re-negotiations and coordination with municipal agencies regarding tenancy and options for redevelopment. Ongoing asset management by Agora Partners aims capitalized on numerous opportunities for development, recapitalization, disposition and operating efficiencies. The mix of existing residential and commercial assets, as well as vacant land, was sold in a series of transactions in late 2014 and early 2015, exceeding pro forma projections.
WEST VIEW/ACRA HOLDINGS, Los Angeles, CA
A multi-faceted infill land acquisition strategy was overseen and executed by Agora Partners on behalf of an investment partnership comprising local and out-of-state investors. With ACRA Holdings, Agora Partners completed the initial acquisition of a keystone parcel located within close proximity to a planned transit station. Through multiple stakeholder partnerships and design and financing processes, Agora Partners was instrumental in orchestrating a multi-owner, multi-parcel land assemblage while providing asset management and pre-development oversight. The assembled property was sold to a private buyer in early 2014.
CONFIDENTIAL RETAILER, Santa Barbara, CA
To better serve their urban retail customers, a regional retailer enlisted Agora Partners to assess existing operations in terms of neighborhood context and public space activation. At times acting as tenant representative, and other times as urban strategist, Agora Partners advised on a range of operational and merchant-driven city-building opportunities. The retailer’s niche as a sustainable and resilient community steward is evidenced not only by their retail operations, but also in their outreach efforts to create true neighborhood destinations.
MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL TRUST, Hershey, PA
Agora Partners participated in a comprehensive portfolio review with D.R. Horne & Co. to ascertain highest and best uses subject to market opportunities, trends, financial hurdles and other considerations specific to the organization. As part of the review, Agora Partners also made projections of value through either fee-simple sale, lease or other structures. The scope of work included identification of assets, liabilities, valuations, land use, and operating and capital investment strategies. The final deliverable provided materials to define use, value and order of implementation as the cornerstone of a real estate assessment and disposition strategy.
PRIVATE OWNER, Brookhaven, MS
An out-of-state private landowner asked Agora Partners to undertake a comprehensive market assessment and propose a development strategy for a large landholding. The proposal called for a mix of single-family residential and a seniors' apartment facility. Agora Partners investigated entitlements requirements, supply and demand fundamentals, engineering constraints, construction costs and revenues. The final recommendations included best next steps, as well as phasing and exit strategies.
PROPERTY COALITION, Banff, AB (Canada)
Agora Partners worked with a coalition of property owners in the Canadian resort town of Banff to research and provide recommendations on controversial zoning legislation. Located entirely within a national park, Banff faces commercial growth pressures that are often perceived as conflicting with government mandates for national parks. Agora Partners provided expert testimony at a presentation to the Town Council, and then acted as a resource to town officials, to consider longer term ramifications to proposed land use changes.
CityWalkBHAM, Birmingham, AL
Agora Partners was hired to structure a partnership between the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center to manage CityWalkBHAM, a new, 31-acre redevelopment district that will include a signature downtown park, an action sports park, multiple event venues, artist studios and galleries, business incubators, and other attractions—all underneath a one-mile stretch of elevated highway.