2015 could mark the return of the Highrise Condo to the Atlanta market

Posted by atlcondosms on Wednesday, January 28, 2015 · Leave a Comment

This article was circulating around the Atlanta Highrise Real Estate professionals this week. Basically it notes a firm (in fact from what I hear one of many) who are considering making a run at building another highrise condo in Atlanta. Up until now, all of those new glass Towers that you have seen, both in Midtown and Buckhead, have been Luxury Apartment projects. The turn of the tide that has already rapidly advanced in cities like Miami, Chicago, and NYC should continue to formulate and develop as the local Atlanta economy continues to improve. By my estimate, I would suspect that 10-20% of ANY new highrise condo in Midtown would likely make easy sales to the many people in the TV and film industries who continue to utilize the city as a second home.
In my discussions with Bankers and the likes, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the economics of a new building are there for the taking with many of the big local players positioning themselves for the recovery. From my understanding Weissman Nowack Curry & Wilco are currently working up the most updated decks of templated condo docs. Wells Fargo (a lender with the Lion’s share of the American housing market) is setting itself up to be both the front-end, primary building financier. This along with the back-end, financing of the final end purchaser makes for concise wire to wire approach to a vast sum of fee and financing cash flows. This, coupled with the latest Conventional Loan rules, allowing for just 3% down, means that conceivably a big Bank like Wells Fargo could quickly pocket large sums of loan-generation fee income prior to “flipping” these 3% Down Government backed Agency securities back to the investors who clamor for them.