midtown atlanta real estate Archives

Midtown Atlanta Market Report | Park Central Midtown Atlanta|Year End 2013

March 4, 2014 by Thom Abbott

Park Central Midtown Atlanta Condominiums — Park Central

Park Central Condominiums are located on Juniper and 13th Streets. This Midtown Atlanta condominium building has a great location, convenient to Piedmont Park, Colony Square and the Woodruff Arts Center.

Park Central is also one of only TWO Midtown Atlanta condominium buildings that boasts and INDOOR and outdoor pool! So during this tough winter, if you were a swimmer you were in luck here!

For the year ending, 2013, Park Central was #3 in the Top Ten Selling Midtown Atlanta Condos!

Midtown Atlanta Market Report | Park Central|Year End 2013

In 2013, Park Central had a total of 43 homes sold. This compares to just 29 homes in 2012!

19 One Bedroom homes with an Average Sold Price of $143,108. The 2012 Average Sold Price was $114,964.

24 Two Bedroom homes with an Average Sold Price of $208,269. The 2012 Average Sold Price was $195,063.

Park Central also offers its residents an expansive fitness center, club room and a rooftop sunning area along with outdoor grills at the pool. There is guest parking available in the building garage, which in this area, close to Piedmont Park and additional condo and apartment buildings is a real PLUS!

A side note about this building and the future. The west facing homes (overlooking Juniper Street) also overlook a vacant city block. The developers of 12th and Midtown have just announced the next phase of their development, and it will be a 50 story building on this block! So the current views from these homes will be greatly impacted in the next couple years.

A Virtual Fly Over of Midtown Atlanta

February 22, 2014 by Thom Abbott

Today, I was working to clean up old emails that I had saved. Like from a YEAR ago! Subjects that I have wanted to blog about, but have never gotten around to! Many were no longer relevant, and others I can still work with.

One of those was a virtual fly over of Midtown, leading to Atlantic Station. If you’ve wanted a bit of a Bird’s eye view of the area, this is pretty cool.

Selling Midtown Atlanta Condos |No Sign, No Lockbox, Appointment Only

February 14, 2014 by Thom Abbott

You’ve made the decision to sell your Midtown Atlanta Condo. Awesome!

But, are you making it EASY to sell your Midtown Atlanta Condo?

Did you ask your Listing Agent that you do not want to have a lockbox at the Concierge Desk or on the door?

Did you ask your Listing Agent that all showings be by Appointment Only?

When you make the decision to sell your Midtown Atlanta Condo, you have to consider…you will need the condo to have showings to get an offer, have a contract and SELL! And you want to make that first part of that equation….showings….as easy as possible.

I always counsel my Sellers that you need to keep the place picked up and clean….all-the-time when you are For Sale! I know that’s hard, but put the hair dryer away in the morning, make the bed and wash your breakfast dishes or put them in the dishwasher! While Buyers Agents will try (sometimes) to follow instructions, sometimes the Buyers just found your listing and they want to see it….NOW! And we need to make that as easy as possible.

Understandably, if you have children or pets, special arrangements have to be made. But in those early days of listing your Midtown Atlanta condo for sale, is when the critical and perhaps best showings happen. And you don’t want to miss that opportunity!

No Sign — is really no problem in a condominium since they are not allowed in most places. If you do happen to be selling a single family home, that sign could be one of the keys that helps sell your home. A potential buyer could be driving the neighborhood, and somehow in their Internet search, missed your home. That sign could spur a showing call.

No Lockbox — This modern convenience HELPS sell your home! Licensed real estate agents have keys to open these boxes. It gives your agent a record of who looked at your home, and when. Now, in a condo, it’s possible to leave a key release with the Concierge. But again, the important contact information from the showing agent can be missing. Let’s say you make a price change after being on the market for a few days….your Listing Agent can quickly send a direct email to all the past agents that showed your home by getting that information from the lockbox readings.

Appointment Only — This goes back to having your home picked up and clean every day while you are on the market to sell. You should really only consider Appointment only if you have some special circumstance like pets and children. Agents jsut might pass over showing your home or condo if you make it a challenge.

Selling Your Midtown Atlanta Condo. No Sign, No Lockbox, Appointment Only. All things to seriously think about.

New Midtown Apartment Tower Called “Iconic” Building

February 8, 2014 by Thom Abbott

6th and Peachtree Apartment Building — Rendering by Perkins + Will

The interest for Midtown Atlanta certainly is not waning as numerous apartment developments are announced. Note….I said a-p-a-r-t-m-e-n-t-s….not condominiums. But at least it appears one developer has figured out that Midtown Atlanta needs an iconic building.

Integral Group, headed by Egbert Perry has presented a plan for a 35-story apartment tower on the corner of 6th and Peachtree Streets. The current vacant lot is surrounded by Viewpoint Midtown, 805 Peachtree and across the street, Cornerstone Village. Perry is noted for his re-development of the Techwood Homes housing project into Centennial Place, a $153 million mixed-use development, and Centennial Park North, a $45 million townhome community. Both became a model for revitalizing public housing projects. Additionally, Integral Group is also working to acquire the former General Motors Plant in Doraville…some 130 acres located at I-285/ I-85 and adjacent to the Doraville MARTA station.

It’s clear to the eye, that Atlanta in general has been the settlement of plain glass towers without much character. Sovereign Buckhead would be the one new building to have broken that trend in recent years. The “Iconic” (we’ll call it that for now) would certainly be a stand out on the Midtown Mile and bring some much needed architectural character to the community.

Plans call for around 400 apartments and 25,000 sq. ft. of retail space. It will not be a value address when it comes to rental rates. Industry experts say the rates will push $2 per square foot, or more, such as the recent 77 12th apartments have done. 77 12th is part of the 12th and Midtown development that includes the Loews’ Hotel and 1010 Midtown condominiums.

So, a 1 bedroom at 800 sq. ft. would be $1600 per month. If floor plans offer a 1,400 sq. ft. 2-bedroom home, rent would be in the $2,800 range. To those living in Midtown and paying $1000-1300 for a one-bedroom would be wise to sign multi-year leases if they knew they were going to be staying in Midtown. It’s not getting any cheaper to rent!

From the Buyer’s perspective, it is anyone’s guess if such a building would be built and converted to condominiums instead of apartments, or they will open as apartments, and in a few years, convert to condominiums for purchase. Certainly right now, a new construction condo purchase in Midtown Atlanta is going to be reserved for those willing to pay $600,000 and beyond.

And here is a glimpse of the site where this building is proposed.

Atlanta Before and After Photographs

December 30, 2013 by Thom Abbott

As part of my real estate blogging, I’ve become quite the photographer.

I certainly don’t mean in the professional sense, although I have to say I’ve got some pretty neat photos of everything from cocktails to condos! It’s just fun to take pictures. At last count…I think there was something like 28,000 of them on my hard drive. (Yes, I’ve wised up to cloud storage, and they are slowly moving there!)

As this post is written, the balcony doors of the condo I’m staying at in Miami Beach are open…and I can hear the sound of the waves rolling in on the beach. I think back to a time, long, long ago when I worked here in Miami Beach. Holy crap! This is NOT the Miami Beach I remember from back then! All of the new construction and condo buildings is truly amazing, and I wish I had pictures of my time back then. (It was pre-digital, let’s just say that!)

But at least I’ve got quite a few of the Atlanta Before and After of Atlanta and Midtown as it’s “grown up.” It’s certainly nothing like happened here in Miami Beach, but then again Atlanta is a far cry from the international destination that Miami and Miami Beach have become.

With all the copyright issues with photos, I’m pretty cautious on what I post now days. But a recent article appeared in Curbed Atlanta that has some great Before and After photos. Here is the link to that story.

And I’ve shared a couple of my Before and After shots here as well. If you’d like to be a part of Midtown history, let’s get you into one of the many living options we have, and you can have your camera ready to capture the changing skyline!

One Museum Tower – A Midtown Atlanta Condo Building Reborn!

December 23, 2013 by Thom Abbott

Back before the market crash, I think I had a bit of a “crystal ball” moment. I used to look at all the new buildings going up (and proposed) and said, “This is awesome, all this new construction, but who is going to fill all these buildings?” Well, we know what happened in Midtown Atlanta, and many other cities as well. But times, they do change, right?

One Museum Tower – A Midtown Atlanta Condo Building Reborn!

An article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle states the longtime Atlanta developer John Wieland has brought back One Museum Tower to Peachtree Street, across from the High Museum. On the right is actually a photo I took from INSIDE the High Museum, looking across Peachtree Street to the then vacant site back in 2007. At that time, the site had already been sitting there for well over a year.

At Midtown Alliance’s Development Review Committee last week, the building was introduced again, in a much smaller version. The original plans were for a 23-story building with some 90+ homes starting around $2 Million! (I wondered THEN where THOSE kinds of buyers were coming from?)

(Drawing/photo compliments of Midtown Patch/ABC)

Fast forward to this week, and we now have a very scaled down One Museum Tower… FIVE story building with only 48 homes, ranging in price from $700,000 to $2.5M. (I again have to wonder, are there that many condo buyers out there for this price point of a condo? Another building, Seventh Midtown has also been announced, pricing to start at $600,000 and go to $1M)

While it’s great to see the wheels of construction begin to turn, I hate to see a prime piece of Peachtree Street not see it’s potential when it comes to a high-rise building. Mind you, I’m sure the residents of Ansley Park (just behind this site) are jumping for joy at a smaller project with out the height!
Let’s see what happens with the new and improved One Museum Tower!
Below is the building proposed about 7 years ago!

Midtown Atlanta Market Report | Park Central|Year End 2013

One Museum Tower – A Midtown Atlanta Condo Building Reborn!

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