One of the more notorious land owners in Atlanta has one of his neglected properties up for sale. The Clermont is for sale. Gene Kansas is the selling agent - he seems to be getting all the deals with unpopular owners. In this case, we are talking about Jeff Notrica and Inman Park Properties. Anyway, this is pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if this is an indication that his business model of, um, buying old buildings and and letting them rot is, well, not working out. The guy owns a lot of vacant land in East Atlanta. It isn't hard to find examples of the same business plan in other cities. I've always wondered how exactly they were able to carry all that land - it apparently gets pretty tight at times.
Some history: Notrica bought the Clermont in 2003 for $3.4 million. He is asking $6.5 million for it today. A year ago Inman Park Properties was looking for an investor. I guess that didn't work out.
Anyway, I don't have anything against Notrica or IPP, but this is the sort of story Terminal Station likes to keep an eye on. I would love to see underutilized properties get fixed up, and I think it is quite sad what Notrica has let happen to his property in EAV. If he were forced to sell his land to owners that would put any money at all into it, worse things could happen. But I'm not going to celebrate someone going bankrupt or anything.
I don't have any personal feeling about the Clermont, for that matter. There is plenty historic about it, and Ponce would certainly feel different without its influence. Perhaps this is hypocritical given my stand against renovations at the Majestic? Meh. I went to the Majestic all the time - not so with the Clermont. I'm pretty neutral, since I presume anyone who would buy it would not be interested in tearing it down.
*image courtesy of Tadson via flickr
Interesting stuff. I don't think any neighborhood wants a developer who lets properties sit and rot.
ReplyDeleteThere's been so much coverage of the Clermont being sold -- I guess because it's low-hanging fruit for all the media outlets -- but I prefer the behind-the-scenes info that you provide.
The Kodak building at Ponce & Argonne -- also an IPP property -- is also for sale, thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteThere are cities that charge fines for letting properties lay vacant. Why can't we have that in Atlanta?
Totally nerdy, but have you seen this?
ReplyDeletehttp://reclaimingvacantproperties.org/session-descriptions/