NY Developer Plans Largest Condo in Region

GAINESVILLE, GA-In what could be the largest condominium development venture yet attempted in northeast Georgia, area hospitality industry brokers tell GlobeSt.com that New York developer Eric Castro, founder and president of 10-year-old Endeco International, expects to file preliminary development plans with the Georgia Mountains Regional Development Center next month for a $325-million, 750,000-sf, two-tower condominium community here, about 40 miles northeast of Downtown Atlanta.

The circular-designed condos would have 34 stories and 36 stories and be built on a 10.6-acre site near the Thompson Bridge and Old Thompson Bridge roads in Hall County. Homes would sell for $1.5 million to $6 million. The developer has been informally talking about the project with local government officials and business leaders over the last two years, brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Castro would need the City of Gainesville to rezone and annex three acres into the city to do the project, according to preliminary plans he has filed with the city.

Castro and his associates couldn’t be reached by GlobeSt.com’s publication deadline. But area hotel brokers tell GlobeSt.com they have heard “nothing so far” on how the developer would fund the project. “It could be another pie in the sky job or it could be the real thing,” an Atlanta independent planner tells GlobeSt.com. “We won’t know for a few months.” A hotel is also planned on the same site.