The open-air Shops Around Lenox sold for a blockbuster $71.8 million a couple of weeks ago, and that transaction could portend more changes and an infusion of pedestrian life in the shopping-centric pocket of the city. The recently updated retail center next to Lenox Square sold for a ceiling-busting $575 per square foot, which the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports could be a record price — certainly a higher number per square foot than any shopping center had fetched intown recently. The newspaper quotes one expert who asserts that being "a monopoly of open-air shopping between a Mandarin Oriental and a top-performing Neiman Marcus" helped to drive that price. The area isn't exactly bedraggled now, but could that news, coupled with the mall's $10 million facelift and more than 1,000 apartments planned for the immediate area, signal that a mini-renaissance is on tap for Lenox-ville?
On the high-end apartment front, the latest plans near Lenox Square involve at least 640 units being built next to the mall and MARTA transit station. AMLI has purchased that seven-acre site and reportedly plans to build the apartments in an urban, grid-like pattern with adjoining greenspace.
Around the corner, on a smallish lot behind Bloomingdales, the mall's owner is planning a two-tower luxury apartment project (as seen at right) that could top out at 450 feet, with some 750 units. Simon is trying to resurrect the $250-million project, which was first proposed in 2006, and it sounds like they're serious. The developer's attorney told Curbed Atlanta in November the project was working its way through the permitting process.
· Shops Around Lenox sells for stunning $575 a square foot [ABC; subscriber content]
· From O4W To Lenox, AMLI Aims To Bring Beaucoup Apartments [Curbed]
· Lenox Square Apartments Still in Limbo (But Have A Rendering!) [Curbed]
[Shops Around Lenox photo: yelp.com]
[Lenox tower rendering via Georgia Globe Design]
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