ATLANTA | Development Thread V

[BlindFatSnake]

Sammyg,

I don't know where you hail from, but it is apparent you know next to nothing about Atlanta, and especially downtown Atlanta. Here's a clue:

Downtown Atlanta has a central core of commercial office towers surrounded by Centennial Olympic Park and other entertainment venues on the west; an expanding Georgia State University on the east; Federal, state and local governmental building and Underground Atlanta on the south; and Midtown on the north.

In 10 years, each quardrant of the downtown will have expanded to include a number of planned museums and a new Falcon's facility... Georgia State will have tons of students living in new dorms... A multi-modal station (hopefully) will be up and running... and the SoNo district will finally close the gap between Midtown and downtown - creating one of the largest business districts in the nation.

So, downtown is NOT dependent on a single stadium to keep it vibrant and off life support. You should visit the city sometime...

[echinatl]

Originally Posted by briantech

Downtown isn't singularly dependent on the dome, but it certainly represents a huge chunk of its attractiveness.

Aquarium, WoC, Philips, The Dome, CoP, and the Tabernacle. Removing the dome wouldn't kill downtown, but I still don't want to see 1/6th of downtown's major attractions disappear either.

I agree. There may be some other projects we want to do (CFHF), keeping the dome downtown I think is something we HAVE to do.

[cybele]

Well I don't mind it being down there but has it really pumped up that area around it all that much. Same with the Stadium.

[Fiorenza]

Putting a little taxpayer money on the CFHF would be a lot better investment that putting a lot of taxpayer money on a new dome, IMHO.

Besides, there's no money anyway, and I doubt they could even float a big enough bond to finance a representative dome and further mortgage our children's future.

Let Arthur Blank put some of his money where his mouth is.

[BlindFatSnake]

Originally Posted by Fiorenza

Putting a little taxpayer money on the CFHF would be a lot better investment that putting a lot of taxpayer money on a new dome, IMHO.

Besides, there's no money anyway, and I doult they could even float a big enough bond to further mortgage our children's future.

Let Arthur Blank put some of his money where his mouth is.

Hotel/motel tax on tourist and out-of-towners is LOCAL taxpayer's money for a football stadium? Really, please explain without bias.

[boomtown]

Thursday, March 11, 2010, 1:03pm EST
City Hall East property has new suitor
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Dave Williams Staff Writer

Atlanta has a verbal agreement to sell the City Hall East property to a real estate investment firm for $27 million, the same price as a deal that fell through last year, Mayor Kasim Reed told the city council Thursday.
Subject to the council’s approval, the city would transfer the vacant 2-million-square-foot building on Ponce de Leon to the Atlanta Development Authority, which then would sell it to Jamestown Properties.
The company is planning a mixed-use development at the site, the type of project it has done in other communities, Reed told members of the council’s Finance/Executive Committee.
“They have taken massive warehouses in other cities, including New York, and transformed them into living, breathing entities,” the mayor said.

The city worked out a deal in 2005 to sell the former public safety building to Ponce Park LLC for $27 million. But after more than three years of delays, the agreement fell victim to the real estate market slump early last year when the company couldn’t obtain financing.
Reed said the agreement with Jamestown calls for $13.5 million up front and another $13.5 million at a later date, a detail which is still being discussed in ongoing negotiations between the parties.
The mayor said he hopes to close the sale next month, in time to use the $13.5 million to help plug a $50 million budget gap the city faces in the fiscal year starting July 1.
Also, finalizing the deal would let the city stop putting out $1 million a year to maintain an empty building, he said.
“One million dollars, in a $50 million revenue shortfall, is real money,” he said.

Some council members expressed concern that the city would only receive about half of the value of the earlier deal immediately, with no firm commitment for the other half in hand.
But most appeared to accept Reed’s argument that waiting longer in a deteriorating real estate market would only lead to a worse deal.
“There’s some sticker shock in what we’re looking at here,” Councilman Ivory Lee Young Jr. said. “(But) if we don’t do it, it will be our taxpayers who will ultimately pay the price.”

[alleystreetindustry]

Originally Posted by boomtown

Thursday, March 11, 2010, 1:03pm EST
City Hall East property has new suitor
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Dave Williams Staff Writer

...the city would transfer the vacant 2-million-square-foot building on Ponce de Leon to the Atlanta Development Authority, which then would sell it to Jamestown Properties.

i was taking a peak at jamestown properties portfolio online, and they have some impressive development in other cities, not to mention some really great sites around midtown atlanta, including 1400 peachtree and 1010 west peachtree (between spring, w. peachtree, and tenth st.).

that area of ponce is going to be HOT following the beltlines construction, redevelopment of city hall east, and reinstatement of the street grid and redevlopment of the midtown shopping center.

[AtlantaMustang]

Midtown looks great at night


Taken by me

[ATLaffinity]

Originally Posted by alleystreetindustry

that area of ponce is going to be HOT following the beltlines construction, redevelopment of city hall east, and reinstatement of the street grid and redevlopment of the midtown shopping center.

Are you referring to a plan to redevelop the Midtown Shopping Center?

I know the Beltline people presented a plan for a boulevard terminating at City Hall East. Didn't know if there were different plans floating around.

[jew4life4948]

Originally Posted by alleystreetindustry

i was taking a peak at jamestown properties portfolio online, and they have some impressive development in other cities, not to mention some really great sites around midtown atlanta, including 1400 peachtree and 1010 west peachtree (between spring, w. peachtree, and tenth st.).

that area of ponce is going to be HOT following the beltlines construction, redevelopment of city hall east, and reinstatement of the street grid and redevlopment of the midtown shopping center.

Weren't they up for the Doraville Site against Sembler and Jacoby?

[alleystreetindustry]

Originally Posted by ATLaffinity

Are you referring to a plan to redevelop the Midtown Shopping Center?

I know the Beltline people presented a plan for a boulevard terminating at City Hall East. Didn't know if there were different plans floating around.

i believe they have the proposal for the shopping center on the beltline website...? renderings and all.

Originally Posted by jew4life4948

Weren't they up for the Doraville Site against Sembler and Jacoby?

not sure...


and that is a great photo atlantamustang. everytime i see midtown from that angle i cant help but imagine the skyline ten, twenty years from now. atlanta will have, by far, one of the most incredible skylines, and urban districts, in the world.

[sabino86]

Originally Posted by alleystreetindustry

i cant help but imagine the skyline ten, twenty years from now. atlanta will have, by far, one of the most incredible skylines, and urban districts, in the world.

Providing that the current new construction can get filled up of course...

[AtlantaMustang]

Now for the daytime view


sorry that its blurry, i took this one with my phone

[gttx]

the view from the top of mason is quite good as well. although it's tough to get up there.

[cabasse]

where was that taken from? id love to snap that view myself sometime if it's available to non-students.

[ajdelo]

Originally Posted by cybele

Well I don't mind it being down there but has it really pumped up that area around it all that much. Same with the Stadium.

Have you ever been to the CNN Center on a Sunday when the Falcons are at home? You can't move in that place. And the areas surrounding the surface parking lots are vibrant with people tailgating and walking around. Yes, I know that is only 8 Sundays per year, but you add up that revenue and all the other revenue (hotel, dining, shopping) generated from all the other events that users go to and I'm sure it is a substantial amount. If the Falcons aren't there and you leave the dome as it is, these events will become fewer and fewer over the next couple of years (i.e. Super Bowl, Georgia High School Football Championships, CFHF game possibility). If you renovate and/or put a new stadium there, more and more events will come (i.e Super Bowl - I think I see a theme here...).

That area may not be the end all be all of tourist sites, but I don't see how it could get any better if you yank the one feature that puts a stadium that large in that area away to the subsurbs.

[gttx]

Originally Posted by cabasse

where was that taken from? id love to snap that view myself sometime if it's available to non-students.

it looks to me like the roof of van leer. i doubt it's open to anyone (students included)...but maybe? mason (civil engineering) is rumored to have the best view on campus, but having not been to the tops of all the buildings i couldn't say.

[micropundit]

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/03/15/daily19.html?t=printable

[jew4life4948]

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/03/15/daily14.html

An apartment tower in south Buckhead built by noted Atlanta condo developer Tivoli Properties Inc. is slated for a foreclosure auction next month.

Mezzo, a 20-story tower that was converted to apartments during its construction, is advertised for a foreclosure auction scheduled April 6.

Chicago-based Corus Bank, the failed Illinois lender behind many struggling condo projects in Atlanta, Florida and California, funded construction of the luxury high-rise at 2171 Peachtree St.

Tivoli is the developer behind Midtown’s Aqua tower and Duo in Castleberry Hill.

Tivoli had proposed an ultra-luxury Mandarin Oriental hotel and condominium on Peachtree Street. Last month, the site for the proposed 53-story posh hotel and residences was foreclosed upon by First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. of South Carolina.

Scott Leventhall, president and CEO of Tivoli, could not be reached for comment. A seizing of the property is not a certainty, and the borrower could continue to negotiate for another outcome.

Corus failed Sept. 11, collapsing under a loan portfolio built almost exclusively around condo projects in once-hot housing markets.

Atlanta was Corus’ third-largest market, and at one time the lender had commitments for more than 2,000 condo units. At one point, Corus had loan commitments on 10 projects in Atlanta totaling more than $600 million.

In November 2008, Corus foreclosed on a $50 million loan to Wood Partners LLC for the development of Horizon at Wildwood, a 282-condo project in Marietta. An auction of individual units spurred sales at discount prices.

Then in March 2009, Corus foreclosed on 193 units in The Brookhaven, a former apartment complex that was renovated and converted to condos.

A consortium of private investors led by Starwood Capital Group reached a deal last year with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to workout the Corus portfolio to reach maximized returns.

The Starwood deal was seen as a major component in resetting the market for condo prices.

The Starwood-FDIC partnership has already foreclosed on other Corus-funded projects, including The Brookwood in Atlanta.

Among the other projects in Atlanta funded by Corus were Novare Group Inc.’s 401-unit The Atlantic at Atlantic Station and Serrano on Abernathy Road in Sandy Springs.

[AtlantaMustang]

Yeah, it is the roof of Van Leer. It doesn't say on the door to the roof that you can't go up there, but I doubt they really like people going up there..