[KevinAtl]

The Mansion

Tallest Buckhead Building Breaks Ground

GlobeSt.com
By Alex Finkelstein
March 17, 2006

ATLANTA-Touted by developer John A. Williams as the tallest building in Buckhead, the under-construction Mansion will be a $165-million, 50-story, mixed-use structure that will have a luxury hotel and 42 residential condo homes. The development is now rising on Peachtree Road at the former site of the Art Institute of Atlanta.


Area marketers familiar with the project tell GlobeSt.com the Mansion will be about 200 feet taller than Buckhead’s current tallest building, the 486-foot, 44-story Park Avenue Condos built in 2000. The tallest building in metro Atlanta is the 55-story Bank of America Plaza at 1,023 sf, according to city planning department staffers. The 60-story SunTrust Plaza, built in 1992 at a height of 871 feet, has the most floors at 60.


Williams, the former chairman of locally based apartment and condo developer, Post Properties Inc., and Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot Inc., are co-investors in the Mansion. City Centre Properties is the developer. The $100-million Williams Equity Fund, founded by John Williams, is funding the project.


Condo prices at the Mansion are expected to start at $3 million. That still won’t make the property the most expensive in the Buckhead district. That honor, to date, goes to Regents Park at Peachtree Battle, also on Peachtree Road. Regents Park condos will start in the $4-million range, area marketers tell GlobeSt.com.


Another nearby high-end condo venture, the St. Regis Hotel and Condominiums at Peachtree and West Paces Ferry roads, will have homes starting at $2.5 million, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Locally based Carter is developing Regents Park at Peachtree Battle.


Williams has told associates he and his investment partners are planning to start a second equity fund to match the $800 million in current development sponsored by the Williams Equity Fund. Williams estimated the development value could grow to $1.2 billion before the Williams Equity Fund closes the spigot, local brokers and marketers familiar with the developer’s long-range plans, tell GlobeSt.com.


Williams heads locally based Corporate Holdings Inc., an umbrella group that manages several commercial real estate development companies, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.