Behind the Sembler development at Piedmont and Sidney Marcus and adjacent to The Dump (hopefully you read that in their annoying radio announcer voice also), rises this gray concrete half-start to a building. We'd like someone to build here. Not because it has any sort of great development story or potential, but really because its an eyesore (even tucked away behind a power-center and adjacent to a furniture liquidator named after a landfill). But who knows? Maybe there is a chance here for an entrepreneurial developer to make a buck or two. The current owner clearly has hit some issues (a conclusion based solely on the fact that we see through the "building"). Our best guess (based on the surrounding parcels) is that the developer intended the building for multifamily housing, and that strategy could still work (have we mentioned the apartment building boom?) There are not many affordable housing options in-town and those few options are steadily diminishing even in this slowed development cycle. Acquiring the property at a fire-sale cost could allow a developer to finish out the building with a much lower basis and offer homes or apartments at lower price-points. The term "affordable housing" scares away many investors and developers, but with a low basis, and sufficient demand, there may be money to be made. And the location isn't all that bad. It's centrally located to other parts of town, and to be honest, if you are going to live next to a Dump, you could do far worse.
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