JOS CEO Scott Jackson tells GlobeSt.com his firm bought the location only to give tenants at the JOS-owned Centennial Towers, 101 Marietta St., additional parking space. The block is zoned for a 30-story office building but Jackson says he is not ready to do that sort of deal right now.

"This is not a land deal," Jackson emphasizes. "It is a 500-space, seven-story parking deck that provides extensive in-place parking income and opportunity for us and Centennial Tower, a 36-story, class A office building, to provide our existing and future tenants more parking than at any other building in Downtown Atlanta."

Jackson adds, "We are not developing the site and have no intention in the near future." The JOS chief notes that Downtown dirt is "trading at much higher per sf prices [than $137.74 per sf for a $6 million tract] and income-producing parking decks are increasingly valuable as land disappears for development."

Still, at $6 million, the 98 Cone St. price is second only to the $10-million, or $5.89-million-per-acre, price Atlanta developer John A. Williams paid local developer David Songy and his Songy Partners in August 2004, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

JOS acquired the 90%-leased Centennial Tower in May 2005 from Miami-based LNR Property Corp. for $74.5 million or $117 per sf, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.