Landmark high-rise in Atlanta is in foreclosure

[marmar]

from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:



Landmark Equitable building in foreclosure

By PAUL DONSKY, KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, April 08, 2009


Downtown Atlanta’s Equitable building, an iconic 33-story office tower that once dominated the city’s skyline, has fallen into foreclosure.

A foreclosure notice published Wednesday said the 40-year-old skyscraper is scheduled to be auctioned on the Fulton County courthouse steps on May 5.

The building’s owner, Equastone 100 Peachtree LLC, owes $52 million on the mortgage to Capmark Bank, a division of Horsham, Pa.-based Capmark Financial Group.

San Diego-based Equastone paid $56.8 million for the building in May 2007 at the height of the commercial real estate boom. According to Fulton County property tax records, the building has fallen in value and is now worth about $44.8 million, including the land.

The Equitable building sits across from Woodruff Park on the site of the old Piedmont Hotel, once one of the city’s poshest hotels. The building does not have a true anchor; instead, it’s home to midsize and small businesses and is about half leased. Current tenants include the district offices of U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta.). A Starbucks popular with office workers and Georgia State students is on the ground floor.

Atlanta’s commercial real estate market has been hard hit by the recession, which has caused vacancy rates to rise and rentals to fall. Deals struck earlier this decade are particularly vulnerable, said Alan Wexler, president of Databank.

“I would say at least 25 percent of deals made in the last five years or so are probably having issues,” he said. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2009/04/08/equitable_building_foreclosure.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

[Trocadero]

1. A Man in Full

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. Boston's Hancock...

..the shiny one, not the 1940's wedding-cake one with the weather lights, went the same route last month. $1.3 billion in 2006 -- $660 million today.