The new owners of the Atlanta complex with an iconic digital sign tracking Metro Atlanta’s population have worked out a deal with the Atlanta Urban Development Corp. to set aside more than half of its apartments for renters making up to 80% of the area median income.
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Atlantica Properties and the nonprofit EQ Housing Advisors purchased The Lofts at Twenty25, previously known as The Darlington, from Harbor Group International for $90M last month.
The new owners entered an agreement with the Atlanta Urban Development Corp. to preserve 311 of the 623 units in the property for households earning up to half of the area median income, said Marc Pollack, EQ’s founder and chairman. Another 60-some units will be preserved for those with AMIs between 51% and 80%.
In exchange, the two developers will receive 25 years of full property tax exemption for the complex.
Atlantica Managing Partner Darion Dunn said the firms’ acquisition price allows the owners the flexibility to preserve the units’ affordability status in perpetuity.
The new purchase price of $90M is more than a 30% discount from Miami-based Westside Capital Group’s purchase price of $136M for the property in July 2022. Westside completed a major renovation of the 16-story apartment complex for it to be marketed as a luxury-only property.
However, Westside then defaulted on a more than $104M loan, and Harbor Group International assumed ownership of the property in September 2024.
“It’s a beautifully renovated luxury property. We are going to keep the property naturally affordable,” Dunn said. “This is a rare opportunity to have.”
For the agreement, Atlantica and EQ entered into a ground lease with the urban development corporation to preserve the property as affordable for a quarter of a decade, after which the deed reverts to the developers, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
The city of Atlanta also provided a $10M loan to Atlantica and EQ to help preserve the property, according to SaportaReport.
The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta and Truist Community Capital provided additional capital to the developers.
The Darlington is considered Atlanta’s first post-World War II apartment high-rise, built for the city’s workforce. In 1965, Turner Broadcasting founder Ted Turner erected the “Atlanta Population Now” sign, which continues to adorn the front of the property.
The sign, which keeps an estimate of the growth of the metro area's population, read just over 1 million residents when lit up.
In 2008, the sign received an electronic upgrade after the old sign failed to record population growth past the 5 million mark. The sign can now display population growth of just under 100 million.
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