Jarel Portman & team gain unanimous approval for 2520 Peachtree Condo
As the Buckhead view notes, “The small room at the Cathedral of St. Philip Tuesday night was jammed—standing room only—with almost everyone attending the NPU-B Zoning Committee meeting there to hear the presentation by JPX Works.” Jessica Hill did a bang up job with the presentation, walking through each aspect of the proposal and the specific aspects that JPX was asking the NPU Board to approve. The proposal passed unanimously without even objection from the residents, the first time that’s happened in 11 years (according to one of the board member we talked to afterwards).
Christian Bailey, co-founder of ODA Architecture, likened the condos to “villas in the sky” and the building as a whole to an “urban lantern,” reminding us of the BeltLine Lantern Parade that has such a symbol of Atlanta urban life.
The key to the success of the meeting was Jarel Portman and his team’s dedication to listening to the needs of the residents and adapting the plans in response. Jessica Hill’s quote sums it up well: “As the unanimous vote in favor of this project reflects, we think this is exactly what our great city needs.”
City Realty has been involved with this project from day 1, envisioning an assemblage of the existing 47-condo units 9 years ago in 2006. The 2520 Condominium Board hired Alan Joel, Jeff Vantosh and me to see if they could assemble all of the units and sell them as one parcel to a developer. Over a period of two years, we successfully completed the job and subsequently entered into a contract to collapse the condominium and sell the whole 80,000 SF site. The purchaser at the time rezoned the property to RG4. However in 2008, just prior to closing, the entire US housing market collapsed and the project fell through.
In the fall of 2013, I decided it was time to revive the effort, and I introduced the idea of a potential buy out to the condo association at their annual meeting in December of that year. Over the next three months, with the help of JPX and Campbell & Brannon, a Buckhead closing firm, we worked with each individual unit owner, one at a time, to enter contracts. The last signature was taken at a US naval base in Doha Qatar, the only place a US notary could be found.
This NPU approval was a huge step in the right direction to ensuring the sale for the current owners! We are excited to continue watching the plans unfold for the area.
