An affiliate of a Miami real estate company has reached an agreement to purchase the remaining unsold condos in Midtown’s 401-unit The Atlantic tower, according to sources familiar with the transaction. Crescent Heights is the buyer, according to sources.
It’s unclear whether Crescent Heights will try to sell the remaining Atlantic units or convert them to rentals.
The deal underscores ongoing volatility in the condo market, and that will cause buyers to proceed cautiously when making a purchase, said Lisa Simmons, president of Beacon Management Services of Atlanta.
ST said it sold 73 units since taking over The Atlantic tower in 2010, but in a statement it said sales had not been at the pace it had hoped. It was fetching from $173,000 to $733,033 for the condos in 2011, said Kevin Grieco of AtlantaSKYrise and Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty. Atlanta Business Chronicle reported last fall that ST Residential converted about 40 of the units to rentals. That move came a little more than a year after ST Residential began marketing The Atlantic condos at significantly reduced prices, a reflection of the reset in condominium values across metro Atlanta after the building boom.
The company could not comment, said Roman Speron, operations manager at Crescent Heights. The developer is known for intown Atlanta projects including the 34-story Mayfair Renaissance.
The Atlantic’s owner, ST Residential, an affiliate of Starwood Capital, and Crescent Heights have struck a similar deal in the past year. Last summer, Crescent paid $50.4 million for the remaining 241 units in the Tao condominium in Sunrise, Fla., according to South Florida Business Journal, a sister publication of Atlanta Business Chronicle.
– As Reported by Doug Sams in The Atlanta Business Chronicle 1/27/12 –
