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Shaya Boymelgreen loses Atlanta skyscraper condo to foreclosure
New York-based developer had planned project for 9 years
Shaya Boymelgreen and 98 14th Street in Atlanta (Getty, LoopNet)
The New York-based developer Shaya Boymelgreen has lost the long-anticipated Opus Place skyscraper condominium complex in Atlanta’s Midtown to foreclosure.
Boymelgreen’s Olympia Heights Management acquired the property at 98 14th Street near the Woodruff Arts Center in 2014 with plans for a three-skyscraper complex which included residences, a hotel, and retail spaces, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
But the project, which had undergone various development plans over the course of nine years, failed to materialize despite ambitious proposals and efforts. Initially envisioned as a 74-story condo in 2016, the plans were later modified. By 2018, the development was 53 stories but still was marketed as Midtown’s tallest residential tower. The latest iteration was supposed to include 257 units, with prices ranging from the mid-$400,000s to penthouses at $12 million.
With a reported 20 percent of units being sold, the development faced challenges in 2020 as the developer looked to sell a portion of the site. The project has been struggling to draw buyers given the rapid development of high-rise towers in Midtown over the past decade.
In 2016, Boymelgreen was banned from selling condominium units in New York for two years following a settlement with the state Attorney General’s office over claims he refused to finish work and fix construction defects at half a dozen buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The foreclosure of his Atlanta complex mirrors issues at another large urban project nearby, Newport’s South Downtown, where 18 properties are slated for foreclosure. The public auction for them has been postponed and is expected to take place early next year, according to the project’s lender.
Other Atlanta projects which have recently gone into foreclosure include the Virginia Highlands Apartment Homes, located at 609 Virginia Avenue, now controlled by H.I.G. Realty Financing for $65 million, and Celebration At Sandy Springs at 7000 Roswell Road, whose foreclosure sale has been delayed.
The foreclosures come at a time when the Federal Reserve’s measures to control inflation have slammed the commercial real estate market, pressuring property owners with impending mortgage obligations and pushing some ventures into distress.
— Ted Glanzer