ATLANTA-One of the most prolific condominium developers in the Southeast, locally based Novare Group has contracted to buy a prime 2.3-acre Midtown site from locally based Pope & Land Enterprises Inc. for an estimated $8.05 million or $3.5 million per acre ($80.35 per sf), persons in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com.

A high-rise condo community is planned on the site which is across the road from the 23-story, 502,000-sf Atlantic Center Plaza and the 50-story, 1.1-million-sf One Atlantic Center. Novare Group has about $2 billion worth of pending, started or completed high-rise condo-retail projects in the metro area, according to GlobeSt.com research.

The land deal is slated to close in December and will rank among the area's most expensive developable tracts, according to GlobeSt.com research. For example, in August 2004, locally based Cousins Properties Inc. paid Pope & Land an estimated $40 million, or $4 million per acre ($91.82 per sf), for a trophy 10-acre pad at Peachtree and Piedmont roads near the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Tower Place office/retail campus in the Downtown Buckhead submarket, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

In March 2004, six months before the Cousins land purchase, Novare Group paid Pope & Land $7 million for two prime acres in the same Buckhead vicinity, as GlobeSt.com also reported. That price equates to $3.5 million per acre or $80.35 per sf. Novare-Group is building the $500-million, 29-story, 406-unit Realm at City Center on the site.

Among recently completed or under construction Novare-Wood condo projects in the metro area are Spire, a 28-story, 1,200-unit community at 860 Peachtree St. in Midtown; Twelve, a planned $75-million, 26-story condo-hotel at Atlantic Station; the $75-million, 498-unit, 20-story Metropolis at Peachtree and Eighth streets; the 358-unit Eclipse on Pharr Road in Buckhead; and an estimated $70-million, 282-unit, 19-story condominium and retail community in Cobb County's Wildwood development at Powers Ferry Road and Windy Ridge Parkway.