Boyd Simpson Set for Massive Midtown Redevelopment

A longtime Atlanta real estate investor is looking to turn his Midtown HQ into a mixed-use development.

The Simpson Organization's Boyd Simpson has filed permits with the City of Atlanta to transform his corporate offices at 1409 and 1389 Peachtree into a two-building mixed-use project that could include a 190k SF office building with a 650-car parking deck as well as a hotel and residential tower with 206 apartment units and 140 hotel keys, all with street-level retail. Boyd says the plans are in the early stages, and at this point there's no construction financing nor planned delivery date. Plans for what is tentatively called 52 Seventeen Peachtree have been submitted to the development review committee of Midtown Alliance.

Currently, the property consists of two office buildings totaling 160k SF that are 80% occupied, along with street-level retail. Boyd says the target audience for the office space—other than it being Class-A—will evolve as the project does, but “we don't have a particular techie kind of focus at this point.” There has been no pre-leasing. “We are negotiating with several hotel companies [for the flag], but no decision has been made,” he says. The Simpson Organization has been on a roll this year, recently purchasing Peachtree Dunwoody Pavilion for nearly $54M from Parkway Properties. Boyd (here with German insurance exec Ralf Dellert in an undated photo) describes his capital sources as both in-house and through domestic and European partners. The firm has invested on behalf of a German fund called TSO-DNL Fund IV, which has among its holdings The Shoppes at Dunwoody and 121 Perimeter Center West, home to a major SunTrust bank branch and Tin Lizzy's Cantina in Dunwoody.