Tishman Speyer Drops Out Of Civic Center Redevelopment
New York developer Tishman Speyer pulled out of its agreement to redevelop the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, just a day after city officials voted to move forward with the developer.
Tishman Speyer informed board members of Atlanta Housing — one of the largest housing authorities in the country — that it was withdrawing as a partner on the civic center project. The firm, along with H.J. Russell & Co., was selected by AH on May 25 to redevelop the 50-year-old vacant property, which includes the civic center building and 14 surrounding acres, Atlanta Civic Circle reported.
AH CEO Eugene Jones said Tishman's decision “comes as a great surprise” to the agency, which purchased the civic center site for $31M in 2017 and has worked, unsuccessfully so far, to find a developer to build a major new housing project at the corner of Piedmont Avenue and Ralph McGill Boulevard.
“While this is clearly a unique development site with great potential, we've determined that the project is not right for us at this time,” a Tishman spokesperson told Atlanta Civic Circle.
Tishman and Russell envisioned a center retail plaza and 1,300 housing units, including 400 designated to be affordable for a family of four earning more than $86K per year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Tishman and Russell were among a handful of developers to submit proposals to AH for the site, the second time AH had considered developers for its dreamed-of project. Previously, Houston-based Weingarten had sought to redevelop it, but those plans also fell by the wayside.
“While the administration is disappointed with the developer’s sudden withdrawal after an eight-month-long procurement process with Atlanta Housing, we are fully confident that the Atlanta Housing board of commissioners will move expeditiously to select a new development partner that shares our collective vision of a site that brings equity and opportunity to our community, highlighted by a deep commitment to housing affordability,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement.
This is the second major redevelopment project that Tishman has dropped out of in Metro Atlanta. Last year, Tishman — which developed Three Alliance Center tower in Buckhead — pulled out of talks with Elevator City Partners, formed by BeltLine visionary Ryan Gravel, to buy and redevelop the Mall at West End.
It still has visions for a huge development in Atlanta, just not in the Old Fourth Ward. Last month, Tishman filed permits with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to develop a mixed-use project that could include 700 apartment units, 300K SF of office and 50K SF of retail off 10th Street in Midtown.
