A 10-acre site straddling Castleberry Hill and downtown Atlanta that had been pitched as a multi-high-rise life sciences campus was foreclosed upon Tuesday by its lender.
Developer Urbantec Development Partners had said the project, known as Forge Atlanta, would include more than a half-dozen sleek towers. It would blend offices, apartments, retail, a hotel and an entertainment venue along Whitehall Street about a half-mile south of Centennial Yards.
Urbantec bought the site near the Garnett MARTA station about two years ago for $26.1 million — most of which was financed with loans from the land's previous owner, McCall Railroad LLC. McCall, an entity created by Gourmet Foods International founder Russell McCall, reacquired the property at Tuesday's foreclosure sale on the steps of the Fulton County Courthouse. Its unchallenged bid was $20 million.
The reversal comes as the post-pandemic office market remains muddled as companies navigate hybrid work schedules and developers pause projects amid an uncertain economy and rising interest rates. "The market killed it," said Henry Lorber, a distressed real estate expert with Henry Lorber and Associates. Urbantec's loans totaled $25.7 million, and pressure ramped up on the developer last year when McCall and Urbantec agreed to expedite the loan's maturity date by a year to January 2025.
Forge Atlanta aimed to join downtown's list of gigantic redevelopment projects — the 3.8-million-square-foot development, announced in October 2021, was about the same floor space as three Bank of America Plazas — but it never broke ground. A.J. Robinson, the president of downtown civic organization Central Atlanta Progress, noted the site is "not exactly prime real estate along Peachtree Street or the Beltline," and said the foreclosure is not a barometer of broader trends for downtown Atlanta development.
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
