Atlanta real estate executives John Ferguson and Ryan Curry have joined forces to launch C/F Capital Partners, a boutique investment firm focused on untapped value potential in office markets across Atlanta and the Southeast.

Ferguson, an Atlanta native who represented the office market for three decades at Cushman & Wakefield Atlanta and Curry, who advised corporations on global real estate portfolios at Cushman & Wakefield Atlanta and worked in corporate real estate at 

The Coca-Cola Company, are bringing a fresh approach to office market investments in Atlanta and the Southeast. Combined, Ferguson and Curry have over 50 years of real estate experience and have completed more than $3.5 billion in transactions in Atlanta and around the globe.

“Understanding the comeback of the office market is giving investors a new landscape of potential as value opportunities emerge,” said Curry, who brings an extensive track record in asset management, commercial real estate finance and financial reporting of global real estate portfolios. “Workplace trends, debt maturities and supply/demand dislocation are creating generational buying opportunities for office properties.”

C/F Capital Partners is focused on undervalued properties with the most potential for improvement and sale in markets and submarkets where demand is returning most. 

Atlanta’s population growth continues to surge, and workforce office use has now risen above pre-pandemic levels. Coupled with Atlanta’s relative low unemployment rate, the metro area remains a great environment for companies to locate and grow, aided by low taxes, lower cost of living, more attainable housing prices and more cost-effective office rates compared to other major metropolitan areas, and a rich talent pool of highly educated and skilled workers from a widely diverse range of colleges and universities. 

“C/F Capital Partners is uniquely positioned to understand office market trends and help investment partners decipher undervalued opportunities to reach above market returns,” said Ferguson, who has represented the needs of office space users in Atlanta, nationally and internationally for over 30 years.  “Investments made in office real estate after the great financial crisis of 2008 produced some of the highest five-year returns ever – today office valuations are in historically low levels just like back then. We see the right signs in the market, risk levels abating, and attractive opportunities are more and more prevalent.”

Over the last two quarters, Atlanta has seen almost 5 million square feet in office leasing activity, the highest of any Southeast market since 2022, according to market data, pointing to underlying demand. Sublease space hitting the market as of midyear 2024 declined, demonstrating stabilization. Meanwhile, net absorption is trending toward a breakeven. Office vacancies are showing signs of a peak, supply has stabilized due to a lack of construction across many markets, there has been an uptick in office-to-other-use conversions and the market has seen 4.5 percent average annual office rent growth since 2014.  

The pendulum has swung, with a return to office trends moving in the right direction, added Ferguson. “The last six largest office transactions in Atlanta have all kept the same amount of square footage or added more. This paints a very different picture than what we’ve gotten used to seeing in the last four years since the pandemic,” he said.

Nationally, office product valuations have dropped 40 percent since the pandemic and large institutions and RE funds have been reducing their exposure to office, selling at a discount regardless of signs of an improving market.

Ferguson and Curry bring deep relationships with users, building owners, developers, asset managers, brokerages, design firms, construction companies and other real estate organization types essential to deal flow. They also bring a deep understanding of tenant needs and pressure points plus a unique approach to landlord-tenant relationships that reflects the reality and needs of today’s office market and helps drive value and maximum investment return.

“We’re currently pursuing three office assets, all three suburban, all in the $15 million to $50 million range, some on the market, some off the market, all sitting on phenomenal real estate that is great today and will be great or greater tomorrow,” said Ferguson.