Under the agreement CRB will acquire the approximately 1.5-acre development site, which includes a parking lot and an empty building that once housed the Center for the Visually Impaired. The church owns its sanctuary, an activity center and a parking lot on an approximately two-acre site on the south side of Fourth Street across from the development. Locally based architect Tom Ventulett, of Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates, will create a master plan for both the development site and the church-owned site, which will likely be redeveloped. CRB Realty president Scott Brown tells GlobeSt.com that the project will cost at least $150 million.

Construction of the mixed-use project, which will be up to 40 stories, is expected to start in the first quarter of 2009 with completion slated for fall 2010. The project will include up to 40,000 sf of street-front retail, a boutique hotel, approximately 150,000 sf office space and high-end rental apartments or condominiums. More specific details of the project are still being developed, although the project will not be required to go through the entitlement process, Brown says.

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, the largest Cathedral-style Lutheran church in the Southeast, is located at 731 Peachtree St. It was the first English-speaking congregation in Atlanta, although it still holds services in German.