DeKalb County officials say brighter days are ahead for one of metro Atlanta’s most blatantly blighted high-rise structures. 

A building permit authorizing redevelopment of the former Presidential Hotel—a 14-story, windowless and skeletal structure near Spaghetti Junction that’s stood vacant for more than a decade—has been issued, as DeKalb County government leaders announced Monday.

According to county officials, Aramar Investments is planning to convert the empty concrete structure at 4001 Presidential Parkway into a $53.3-million project with 282 residential units, undertaking a full interior remake. (The unit breakdown: 76 studios, 150 one-bedroom, 52 two-bedroom apartments, and four penthouses.) 

A Land Disturbance Permit for the gutted tower and its 7-acre site will now allow for renovation work to proceed, per the county. 

The permit “represents meaningful progress toward transforming one of DeKalb County’s most visible vacant properties into a productive residential community,” DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said in a statement. “[The proposed] redevelopment reflects our commitment to working with the private sector to address longstanding challenges, attract responsible investment, and bring new housing opportunities to our county.”

No timeline for construction or reopening was specified. 

The windowless, graffiti-scarred former Presidential Hotel property in spring 2021, with Spaghetti Junction in the distance. Shutterstock

Aramar describes itself as a “vanguard in contemporary real estate investment and development… [with] a proven track record of successful ventures” that includes more than 2,400 housing units and 460 acres of projects, most of them low-rise. The Duluth-based company’s portfolio includes dated property conversions and new development across Florida, Georgia, and other markets, including work on a multifamily complex at the doorstep of MARTA’s Kensington station in Decatur. 

The Presidential Hotel, lording over interstates 85 and 285, rivals sky-high eyesores such as Midtown’s former Campanile building and downtown’s historic but long-ailing Medical Arts Building for its scope and sheer, puzzling blah factor.

Built in 1973, long before Spaghetti Junction next door, the Presidential Hotel slid into infamy as a haven for misbehaving police and closed in 1987, only to be revived as a Ramada-branded hotel in time for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, replete with a rollicking nightclub called Club Europe at the base through the 1990s. Its most recent use—as condos dubbed the Presidential Boutique Condotel—fell victim to owner infighting that left the property in disrepair, marred with legal disputes, and ultimately vacant, apart from the occasional YouTube explorer prior to security crackdowns. 

Big ideas for converting the old hotel over the years have included student housing, self-storage, and a $100-million project with active senior housing called AWAVI, which called for about 400 one-bedroom and studio condos in the cylindrical tower and a new high-rise next door. 

That proposal, first pitched in 2018, ultimately sputtered. But will this time be different for the hulking, interstate-adjacent eyesore? We'll see. 

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• DeKalb County News, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)