GSU Campus Construction (Buckhead: tenant, price, estate)

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by gumboula

Business was never going to be in the Suntrust tower. Once upon a time there were plans to build a combined Law/Business School complex on the site of one of the auxilary buildings that are located behind the tower. I believe it is currently a training center for Suntrust.

I thought they would use the Tower for business school faculty office space and perhaps the law school faculty too.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by gtcorndog

Sure... if you choose to ignore all the significant maintenance and upgrades costs of purchasing an old building. On paper, it looks okay, but there has to be a reason why no one else really wanted the building. If the building was 1/10th as desirable as those on here are making it sound, it would've sold for significantly more.

It can't be a "bad" building as it sold in 2007 for $57 million. As with everywhere, the real estate market took a nosedive as the economy tanked. And Downtown in general has been suffering from high vacancy rates. For some reason, the lure of a new building can pull tenants away and those buildings are in Midtown and Buckhead.

The only other "ideal" skyscraper for GSU is 55 Park Place but I think its vacancy is low so it would be pricey. The Equitable building suffered from low occupancy sending it into foreclosure.

[arjay57]

Well, all right! It sounds like the new owner of the Equitable Building is thinking along the same lines I am:

De Olazarra’s company paid $19 million for the building and plans to spend at least that much modernizing it.

A new anchor tenant could have its name on the building instead, he said. Meantime, he will rebrand the building by its address, 100 Peachtree. He hopes to attract a major corporate relocation from outside the state.

The biggest tenant now is Accenture, which takes about 40,000 of the building's 622,000 square feet. De Olazarra says the building is 30 percent occupied but needs new systems. He wants to make it more energy efficient and attract new restaurants.

The location near two MARTA stations, Woodruff Park, Georgia State and other universities, and along the planned street car route, he believes, makes it one of the best located buildings in Atlanta.

Equitable building sells for $19 million *| ajc.com

[RandyWatson13]

100 Peachtree is a helluva address!

[gtcorndog]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Close to planned new business classroom building, and it's beside Aderhold building.




College of Business...

How much do you think it would cost to renovate the building for that purpose? You want classrooms on the 25th floor? Where are you going to put the auditorium sized classrooms that will be needed for the College of Business? You are ignoring costs that would be ridiculous. Why buy an old building for cheap if you are going to spend several times the purchase price to convert it for use in a sub-optimal manner? Clearly this doesn't make sense. Clearly GSU made a wise choice.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by gtcorndog

How much do you think it would cost to renovate the building for that purpose? You want classrooms on the 25th floor? Where are you going to put the auditorium sized classrooms that will be needed for the College of Business? You are ignoring costs that would be ridiculous. Why buy an old building for cheap if you are going to spend several times the purchase price to convert it for use in a sub-optimal manner? Clearly this doesn't make sense. Clearly GSU made a wise choice.

What?!?!? Little conversion would be needed. The Equitable building would not be used for classroom space. It would be used as office space for the College of Business. Just as the SunTrust will not be a classroom building but office space for Arts & Science.

The location of the Equitable building is good because it would have been close to GSU's planned new business classroom building. The CLASSROOMS would be in that building, not the Equitable building. Plus the Equitable is beside a present classroom building the Aderhold.

Anyway, the issue is moot now.

[gtcorndog]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

What?!?!? Little conversion would be needed. The Equitable building would not be used for classroom space. It would be used as office space for the College of Business. Just as the SunTrust will not be a classroom building but office space for Arts & Science.

The location of the Equitable building is good because it would have been close to GSU's planned new business classroom building. The CLASSROOMS would be in that building, not the Equitable building. Plus the Equitable is beside a present classroom building the Aderhold.

Anyway, the issue is moot now.

They need a 35 floor building for office space? How many offices do they need? GT's college of management, while smaller (1500 undergrad vs. aoubt 7,500) is housed in a 4 story building, of which only 3 floors contain any office space. Of these 3 floors, only about 50% are occupied with offices. What on earth would they need 35 floors of office space for? Sure you could house other offices in the building, but is that the sort of environment that makes a good college campus? Nothing says 'same old commuter school' like ramming this square peg in a round hole. Bursars office, yeah... take the elevator to the 34th floor. Registrar, go down to floor 17. Oh your academic advisor is up on 23.

[cabasse]

yeah, it doesn't seem like it GSU (or any university in general for that matter) needs 1M+ sq ft of office space. (650k in equitable, 500k in SunTrust/55 Park Place *) This isn't even counting previous office buildings purchased by GSU.

not really a 5pg discussion IMHO... I'd rather personally see equitable remain office space and GSU construct something on an empty lot anyway.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by gtcorndog

They need a 35 floor building for office space? How many offices do they need? GT's college of management, while smaller (1500 undergrad vs. aoubt 7,500) is housed in a 4 story building, of which only 3 floors contain any office space. Of these 3 floors, only about 50% are occupied with offices. What on earth would they need 35 floors of office space for? Sure you could house other offices in the building, but is that the sort of environment that makes a good college campus? Nothing says 'same old commuter school' like ramming this square peg in a round hole. Bursars office, yeah... take the elevator to the 34th floor. Registrar, go down to floor 17. Oh your academic advisor is up on 23.

It's actually 33 stories, and street level and maybe the second level would remain retail. As for space, GSU business started out in the present Classroom South, outgrew that and then moved to the present College of Education building, outgrew that and then moved to the former C&S/Nationsbank building. Their present building is about 14 stories and I think Wells Fargo uses about two of them.

I heard that some other departments would have moved to the Equitable building as well. But yeah, a frequent problem is office space for grad students, post-docs, and visiting professors. A department of the college could take up an entire floor. I heard that Computer Science would have two floors in the SunTrust building. GSU was interested so the probably felt they could use the space.

As for riding the elevators, well, welcome to the urban campus GSU. It's either that or walking between buildings to the Bursars office and then over to the Registrar, and then to another building to see your advisor all while dodging traffic.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by cabasse

I'd rather personally see equitable remain office space and GSU construct something on an empty lot anyway.

Anything GSU would build would not be very tall. Had GSU acquired the Equitable, if office space demand was there, someone would have built another tower.