A new developer is taking charge of the massive but stalled Streets of Buckhead luxury retail project.
OliverMcMillan, a San Diego firm known for mixed-used developments, is being brought in by financial backers to replace well-known Atlanta developer Ben Carter, who started the project in 2006 but was unable to keep it going amid the real estate bust.
Carter told the AJC on Thursday he is being pushed aside in favor of the new developer, which will bring in the cash necessary to finish the luxury shopping district.
“My whole team has put a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears into it,” said Carter. “We think we are certainly capable of getting the job done, but if they’re going to take over and do it themselves, we have to understand that.”
Dene Oliver, OliverMcMillan’s chief executive officer, declined to comment Thursday.
A person familiar with the project, but who wasn't authorized to discuss it on the record, said the California firm likely will restart work on the project next summer, after tweaking the design and possibly adding new residential units.
Carter said OliverMcMillan wants to continue with his vision for a “Rodeo Drive” luxury retail shopping district on a site where partiers once reveled.
Asked if the property was in distress, Carter said, “I think any project that is in need of capital to complete and is partially built is something that obviously is not in great shape.”
Carter had said earlier this year he needed $200 million to finish the six-block complex, and that he was close to sealing a deal.
The Streets of Buckhead project has been one of the most watched retail developments in Atlanta, given its high-profile address and leases with luxury brands like Hermes and jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels.
Carter paid more than $169 million to assemble land parcels in the Buckhead Village. But construction stopped on the project in early 2009 after the economy tanked and banks stopped lending. The site currently includes a large hole in the ground, some infrastructure and a partially finished parking deck.
“One day, that area of Buckhead will be almost everything that Ben Carter said it would be," said Alan Wexler, of real estate research firm DataBank Atlanta. "It’s just that Carter paid such a premium price on the land and then the economic implosion happened."
Said Carter: “Our priorities are really simple: I really want the project to get done for the city of Atlanta, for the retailers that have hung in there with us, and for the investors involved so that they can get some money back or make money. I am cooperative and will do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
The project was financed by a traditionally structured land loan for $170 million from Bank of America and $150 million in other funding from CBRE Investors. Carter and three partners invested $20 million of their own money.
Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell said his organization recently had written Carter to ask for a construction schedule going forward.
“Everybody had given him the benefit of the doubt,” Massell said, “but it was time to be very specific and make commitments on which he would follow through.”
He praised OliverMcMillan, saying they are a “new player of major prominence with a reputation of success and award-winning projects.”
Sharon Gay, a partner in the government affairs practice of McKenna Long & Aldridge, said she met Dene Oliver in 2004 when Coca-Cola hired the firm to explore putting a retail and entertainment village on its land at Centennial Olympic Park. Though Coke decided not to do the village, Gay said, “I was very impressed with his creativity and experience in developing distinctive retail and mixed use projects. I would be very interested to see what they come up with for Streets of Buckhead.”
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