A vacant mid-rise hotel property on the edge of Summerhill’s development boom where a conversion to apartments and a food hall was planned is instead changing course.
The shuttered Ramada Plaza Atlanta Downtown Hotel is expected to hit the open market late next week, offering a sizable, gutted building near downtown and room for new development, officials with Bull Realty tell Urbanize Atlanta.
Positioned along Summerhill’s northern rim, overlooking Interstate 20, the former Ramada was scooped up during the pandemic’s depths by Pellerin Real Estate, an active eastside developer best known for turning defunct Grant Park warehouses into The Beacon.
Pellerin’s vision for the property, as unveiled in late 2021, called for a blend of about 250 micro apartments (some as small as 330 square feet), coworking space, restaurants, an outdoor promenade, a rooftop pool with a clubhouse, and a 13,000-square-foot food hall.
Phillippe Pellerin, the firm’s principal, confirmed the sale but declined further comment when contacted this week.
Courtesy of Bull Realty
Michael Wess, a partner with Bull Realty, says the 3.25-acre property’s asking price will be $20 million, but that’s “negotiable given other strengths in an offer.”
The building has been totally gutted, with 98 percent of asbestos remediated. For now, it’s permitted and approved for 260 apartments with 33,000 square feet of retail.
Plans have been drawn up for another 287 units, with an additional 23,000 square feet of retail, Wess says. The property’s zoned MRC-3C, allowing for a mix of residential and commercial uses.
“The land where the former banquet hall and one-level parking deck are situated is in fact its own 2-acre development site,” Wess wrote via email. “A second, 300-ish unit structure plus a parking deck for both towers’ units could be built there.”
Courtesy of Bull Realty
The former 400-room hotel property is sandwiched between a variety of new development but still overlooks vast parking lots to the south. Two neighboring parcels have sprung to life as Alliance Residential’s 300-unit Broadstone Summerhill luxury apartments, and to the west, Georgia State University’s new convocation center, basketball arena, and concert hall.
Pellerin bought the 450 Hank Aaron Drive hotel property at auction in 2020 for just shy of $14 million, then briefly tapped New York’s Life House to operate it as a private hotel.
The food hall once planned for the property would have doubled the size of Southern Feed Store, the six-stall food hall Pellerin has built from the former Graveyard Tavern in East Atlanta Village. The hotel property today counts 400 parking spaces, with 35 more in redevelopment plans.
In the gallery above, have a thorough look at this shell of the old Ramada—formerly a popular destination among Braves fans—both inside and out.
...
Follow us on social media:
• Summerhill news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)
