As soon as the dirt came on the market, Ballard contacted a potential buyer, Marietta, GA-based Wood Partners LLC, which was already active in Atlanta apartment development projects. "They responded in record time," Ballard says. "The transaction was complicated by the large number of parties involved."

Cole Whitaker, senior director of the Apartment Group, represented Wood. The broker says the Georgia firm plans to develop Alta Grande, a 306-unit, class A apartment venture on the site which is on the northeast corner of John Young Parkway at Central Florida Parkway. A groundbreaking date hasn't been announced.

In Atlanta, Wood Partners and the Novare Group have already broken ground on a 21-story apartment complex expected to open by year end 2004 in the affluent Buckhead district.

Wood and Novare are also partnering with Atlanta developers George Rohrig and Charlie and Robin Loudermilk on the planned December groundbreaking of a 27-story, retail-oriented condominium tower on the 1.8-acre site of the former Atlanta Cabana Motor Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

Wood also plans a mixed-use venture on the 21-acre, former Mead plant in the Inman Park district of Atlanta. Wood has contracted to buy the site for $16.2 million, or $771,429 per acre, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.