Our quest to spotlight interesting, unique, or weird offerings from metro Atlanta’s commercial real estate scene takes us to South Atlanta this week, where the honesty in marketing descriptions for this versatile, 90-year-old property simply jumps off the page. 

Around the corner from Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood, a few blocks south of The Ron Clark Academy, 320 Sawtell Avenue SE was built in 1933—and apparently built to last. 

The portico out front “had a blow recently from a speeding motorist” that reassuringly “was not fatal in any way,” per the listing.

The sturdy portico at 320 Sawtell Avenue in South Atlanta. Atlanta Communities

This close encounter with a car, however, left the prominent feature “a tad disfigured” though it was quickly repaired and reinforced with additional supports. 

The 480-square-foot, one-bathroom building is part of a historic commercial node on the southside. It listed for sale at $195,000 in late January and underwent a price slice of $20,000 last week.  

The MRC-1/C2 zoning this “urban microdot” carries would allow for a live-work studio—“just add a cooker”—with a lot in the back that could be transformed into a pocket park or garden, or space for an accessory dwelling unit, per the listing.  
 
Beyond the sturdy portico, “the interior dimensions unfold once you are inside,” reads the property description. “Its modest measurements are enough to say that size is not everything. You may know this already from exploring other forms of space which seem to conquer time in their own way.”

And then, some listings poetry: “Here, a rabbit hole can lead to a hatmaker's lair along with a food truck pulled up to the garden,” because a space like this will be "its most powerful once purpled with purpose.” 

The structure dates back to the Great Depression. Atlanta Communities

Atlanta Communities Real Estate Brokerage has the $175,000 listing. 

If the “Sawtell” in the address rings a bell for non-locals, you might be thinking of the Gulch-size, 40-acre property that’d been pitched for redevelopment as “The Sawtell” nearby, where plans for a 31-unit townhome project are now brewing. 

• South Atlanta news (Urbanize Atlanta)