A developer is pushing plans to revive a metro Atlanta icon: the Spaghetti Junction tower, also known as the Presidential Hotel, or the Presidential Boutique Condotel.
Peacock Partnership wants to convert the now-shuttered and rundown property into a 400-unit senior housing development. The plans, if approved, would involve using the 15-story tower that looms over I-85 and I-285, and a new 176,000-square-foot addition in the form of a second tower, plans on file with DeKalb County show.
The planning commission gave preliminary approval to the request for the special land use applications needed, according to Nancy Jester, who represents the area on the DeKalb Board of Commissioners. County commissioners must now weigh the plans at upcoming meetings.
Jester said she's heard plenty of ideas for the property, whose ground floor used to house the storied Club Europe. She's called for years for something to be done about the dilapidated condition of the structure, whose residents were driven from their homes in 2012 after an unpaid power bill.
One group wanted to put a new billboard up top. Another wanted to make the building over as a giant Coke can, though Jester wasn’t exactly sure what purpose that would serve or if they’d asked Coca-Cola about it.
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The land, which sits on Presidential Parkway, off Chamblee-Tucker Road, could be useful even without the tower, built in 1973. But Jester said the estimate she heard for tearing it down was $2 million, because of the unusual construction. Last she heard, the land was worth about $500,000.
Jester said she needs to go through Peacock Partnership’s proposals in full, but she suspects she’ll support it.
“Given what I know, I said this is a good fit,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And it’s a good catalyst to start redeveloping (the area).”
It isn’t yet clear when construction would start if the plans are approved. Steve Farrier, chief financial officer with Peacock Partnership, which is under contract to buy the property, said the company would like to get to work as soon as possible.
“It’s a great location with a lot of visibility,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get there.”
FLASHBACK PHOTOS | Spaghetti Junction through the years
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