Greenstone Partner Harvey Rudy Launches New Development Firm

Harvey Rudy rose to prominence in Atlanta commercial real estate under the guidance of the legendary developer Hal Barry. 

He became a partner at Greenstone Properties in 2011 when former Barry deputy Chris Schoen and Pope & Land alumnus De Little founded the Atlanta-based development firm.

Now, Rudy is forging his own path with a new development company, HSR Development Services, and he has hit the ground running. 

“Honestly, it’s been something I thought about for years,” Rudy told Bisnow in an interview Thursday. “And given the current state of the office market, I was looking for something to do.” 

Rudy’s firm is already involved in its debut project: Managing the development of a new $40M, 120-room Tapestry Collection by Hilton hotel in Downtown Lawrenceville for NorthPointe Hospitality Management.

A mid-sized hotel in a suburb 33 miles north of Downtown Atlanta pales in comparison to some of the developments Rudy has been involved with in his more than 30-year commercial real estate career. At Barry Real Estate Cos., Rudy led the development of the Southern Co. headquarters in Downtown Atlanta in 2004, 55 Allen Plaza, which became the regional offices for EY, and the W Downtown Hotel & Residences.

At Greenstone, Rudy was the development lead for HD Supply’s 220K SF headquarters near The Battery in Cobb County, the 128K SF tech office Kimball Place in Alpharetta, a Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Decatur, and 14th + Spring, the speculative Midtown office tower that became an example of office struggles today. It opened fully vacant and ultimately sold in July to Shorenstein Properties. 

HSR is also master planning a development for the Church at Wieuca in Buckhead, which is in talks to sell 3.5 acres to a single-family and townhome developer and another 2.5 acres to developers who are eyeing a multifamily and office towers, Rudy said. 

Rudy declined to identify potential developers for the projects, which have been simmering since 2020.

Rudy is the second partner to depart from Greenstone. Last year, Chris Scott left the development firm to head up Cresa's Atlanta office. The departures come as Greenstone, which developed 14M SF of office properties throughout the Southeast, is facing a barren office development market today.

Greenstone founder De Little told Bisnow last year that he doubted he would ever build another spec office project in Atlanta given hybrid work schedules and shrinking office footprints.

“Guys like us, who made our living on office, we’ve got to find something else," Little said in October.

In an interview with Bisnow this week, Little said that the firm still has no prospects for an office project, but if that changes, some of Greenstone's principals could reunite. 

“If something comes along, we certainly will get the band back together,” Little said. 

Little likened Greenstone to the 1980s musical supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, made up of George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, with the firm's partners pursuing solo projects during the office malaise. The shop is still up and running, but the lull in activity gave Rudy the opportunity to fly on his own instead of operating under the Greenstone masthead and sharing revenues.

“Harvey is extremely talented. When we formed the Traveling Wilburys band, the primary hat he wore was construction management,” Little said. “A lot of people in this world look at Harvey and think he’s a construction management guy. He is far more than that. He’s a talented developer:”

But both Rudy and Little said that if Greenstone snags another major project, the former partner will come back into the fold. 

“The office world has basically shut down right now. So we at Greenstone are sitting on the sidelines,” Rudy said. “If we bag some big deal in the future, we’ll get the gang all back together.”