Buyer Walks Out on Landmark Building Contract

ATLANTA-The 78-year-old, 12-story, 88,000-sf Medical Arts Building, dark since 1996, is still waiting today for someone to turn the lights back on in the landmark Downtown property located 500 yards from the planned $200-million Georgia Aquarium.

DARP, controlled by record producer Dallas Austin, has walked away from a five-month-old deal to buy the property from Miami owner Harold Gelber, City Realty Advisors LLC broker Tim Holdroyd tells GlobeSt.com.

City Realty had an exclusive listing on the property which has an asking price of $5 million, or $56 per sf, about $100 less than today’s replacement cost of a class A office building. Holdroyd says DARP had planned for Crow Hospitality to redevelop the historic structure as the Arts Hotel, a 140-room boutique inn. The development cost was projected at $160,000 per room, or a total $22.4 million. Rick Standard of Leo Daly was selected to design the building which currently has two parking garages and 266 surface parking spaces.