Office Landmark Among Troubled Assets

ATLANTA-One of the city’s most recognizable office towers is among $1.7 billion in troubled assets tabulated within the local market, according to Real Capital Analytics. The 40-year-old Equitable Building, also known as 100 Peachtree, has an outstanding mortgage of $52 million and is scheduled for a foreclosure auction next week.

San Diego-based Equastone Real Estate Investment Advisors purchased the 33-story, 615,000-square-foot class A building at 100 Peachtree St. NW two years ago for $56.8 million and invested another $4 million in improvements and repairs, particularly after a tornado struck Downtown Atlanta on March 14, 2008. Capmark Bank foreclosed on the property earlier this month.

An auction is set for May 5 at the Fulton County courthouse, and the building’s assessed value has fallen to $44.8 million, according to published reports. It is roughly 50% occupied and has no anchor tenant; Equitable Life & Casualty Insurance Co., the building’s namesake, no longer occupies space there.

PM Realty Group of Houston took over leasing and management of the Equitable Building last fall, pledging to backfill vacancy and find a suitable tenant to rename the building. “It’s a great opportunity for leasing and a great branding opportunity,” Bill Weghorst, PM Realty’s regional director in Atlanta, told GlobeSt.com in September.

The vast majority of Atlanta’s 130 distressed assets consist of retail properties, totaling $877 million, followed by multifamily with $467 million, Real Capital Analytics figures show. Office accounts for $134 million of the market total, followed by industrial ($133 million) and hotel ($72 million).

Atlanta’s troubled assets pale in comparison to many other major markets across the US, such as Manhattan with $9.2 billion, Las Vegas with $8.1 billion and South Florida with $6.3 billion. A total of $86.5 billion in distress was tabulated throughout the US by Real Capital Analytics through this year’s first quarter.

Among other Southeastern markets, Orlando has up to $1 billion in distress while Tampa, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Nashville and Memphis have far lesser amounts. Aside from South Florida and Atlanta, no others in the region show a volume of distress exceeding their respective scale of market activity.