CredAbility to Move Headquarters to 270 Peachtree Street in Downtown AtlantaThursday, September 16, 2010
National Nonprofit Credit Counseling Agency Will Occupy Three Floors Beginning in January 2011
ATLANTA, GA — CredAbility today announced that it will move its downtown Atlanta headquarters to 270 Peachtree Street by Jan. 1, 2011. The national nonprofit credit counseling and education organization, which now has its headquarters in the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta building at 100 Edgewood Avenue, has signed a 10-year lease to occupy three floors in the building.
CredAbility, which has doubled in size to approximately 550 employees over the past three years, will lease the 17th, 18th and 19th floors at 270 Peachtree Street. CredAbility will occupy slightly more than 40,000 square feet of office space, which is approximately 30 percent more than it has in its current location.
About 200 of the organization’s Atlanta-based employees are expected to work at the new location, including its senior executives, the information technology, finance, development, human resources and external affairs departments, along with some of its client service representatives, counselors and educators. Most of the organization’s remaining metro Atlanta employees will continue to work at one of the agency’s two other principal offices, located at 3100 Interstate North Circle in Cobb County and 2160 Satellite Boulevard in Gwinnett County.
After the move, CredAbility will maintain office space at 100 Edgewood Avenue, where it will continue to provide in-person credit counseling services.
The new location provides CredAbility with several important benefits. As a former headquarters building for Georgia Power, 270 Peachtree has an onsite data center, which provides the organization with a secure source of power and high-level security for its data. CredAbility provided confidential counseling and education services to more than 754,000 people in all 50 states in 2009, making data security a critical need.
In addition, closer access to MARTA via the Peachtree Center station will provide the organization’s employees with more transportation options.
“Consumers across the nation count on us to be available 24/7,” said Suzanne Boas, CredAbility’s president. “The 270 Peachtree Street building meets our critical technology and infrastructure needs while also enabling us to remain in downtown Atlanta and continue to be an important part of the community,” she said.
Boas stressed that CredAbility will maintain strong ties with United Way. The two organizations have a long history of working together to provide critically needed services to low- and moderate-income residents of Atlanta. CredAbility has maintained offices in the United Way building since the early 1980s.
“We have a long and valuable partnership with United Way that will continue to thrive, especially now, during a period when so many people in metro Atlanta need social services to provide food, shelter, clothing and financial education for their families,” she said.
Boas said it was important that the agency’s national headquarters remain in downtown Atlanta. CredAbility has been based here since it was founded in 1964 as the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta.
“Although we provide service to families in need across the United States, we remain firmly committed to a strong presence in, and support for, the communities we serve. We have many partnerships with businesses, government agencies, foundations and other nonprofit organizations that are based downtown,” she said. “It’s important for us to stay close to these organizations and make them, their clients and their employees aware of the benefits of nonprofit credit counseling and education.”
CresaPartners assisted CredAbility in the research and negotiations for its new headquarters. “We were careful to negotiate lease rights that will protect CredAbility over the long term,” said Bob Misdom, Vice President with CresaPartners. “It was a win-win for the new tenant and the building’s owner.”
Senior Vice President Greg Kindred and Jenna Schulten represented the owner of the building, Richard Bowers & Company. Richard Bowers & Company recently received a multiyear extension and refinancing for the debt secured by the 270 Peachtree Street building, formerly known as Southern Company Center. The company also owns the adjacent building at 260 Peachtree Street.
“CredAbility is the clear leader in the nonprofit credit counseling and education sector and we are extremely pleased that they chose 270 Peachtree for their new headquarters,” said Greg Kindred, Senior Vice President with Richard Bowers & Company. Kindred said CredAbility will join Habitat for Humanity, another national nonprofit organization, as tenants in the building.
