The site for the long-stalled development of a high-end residential tower called Opus Place in Midtown Atlanta has now been listed for foreclosure.
The property at 98 14th Street near Woodruff Arts Center has been advertised for a foreclosure auction dated Nov. 7 by lender Benmark, according to a public notice filed in Fulton County.
New York developer Olympia Heights Management LLC first filed plans for a three-skyscraper complex in 2014 on property purchased from Woodruff Arts Center, raising the prospect of a skyline-changing development with residences, a hotel and retail on more than four acres on 14th Street across from the Four Seasons hotel.
At the time, the project was supposed to be completed in 2020. That never happened.
Last year, Olympia Heights Management got a $40 million loan from real estate lender Benmark to refinance the development. The loan is now in default.
A foreclosure notice does not guarantee that a property will return to its lender and a deal could be arranged to forestall such a move. The foreclosure notice was first reported by Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Attempts to contact officials with Olympia Heights and Benmark were not immediately successful.
The real estate development world has been upended by the Federal Reserve’s hiking of interest rates to tame inflation and as financial markets have tightened.
But Opus Place failed to gain traction as skyscrapers sprouted all over Midtown and well before the Fed’s inflation-fighting campaign.
Over the last nine years, plans for the project were downscaled and delayed. In 2016, plans shifted to a two-tower development, including a 74-story condo building, with retail and a restaurant plaza.
Roni Avraham, who was OHM director of development at the time, said the firm had a mix of Israeli and American investor equity in place and was working to obtain financing.
By 2018, a website for the Opus Place development said the project at 98 14th St. would be Midtown’s tallest residential tower at 53 stories. A real estate development firm said that year that the 257-unit building was more than 20% sold.
The condo units were listed with floor plans ranging from 625 square feet to 4,000 square feet, at prices ranging from the mid-$400,000s to penthouse homes at $12 million, the AJC reported at the time.
But in 2020, luxury brokerage company Berkshire Hathaway was still pre-selling condos in the tower, but the developer was reportedly looking to sell 2.2 acres of the site.
In addition to the Opus Place property, some 18 properties that are part of German firm Newport RE’s holdings in South Downtown also have been listed for a potential foreclosure sale next month.
