Kaplan Moving Forward On Generation Atlanta
The legal clouds have parted over a quasi-affordable Downtown Atlanta apartment project that could now soon break ground.
Kaplan Residential has settled its lawsuit with the Atlanta Housing Authority and Integral Group and is expected to close on the sale of 377 Centennial Olympic Park Drive, a parcel next door to the new Downtown W and EY's regional headquarters at 55 Allen Plaza.
Kaplan has targeted the site for Generation Atlanta, an $83M, 336-unit apartment complex geared toward millennials with rents that could be below those being fetched by new apartment towers in neighboring Midtown.
“The lawsuit got settled and we are hoping to close today and start construction next week,” Kaplan Residential CEO Morris Kaplan told Bisnow in an email. He declined to discuss details of the settlement other than the AHA and Integral reached an agreement to sell the property to Kaplan.
Kaplan's plans on the project were put on ice as a result of ongoing disputes between the AHA and Integral Group. According to a lawsuit filed in Fulton Superior Court in January by Kaplan, an affiliate of the AHA refused to sign off on a previously agreed-to sale on the land between Integral and Kaplan.
Kaplan previously told Bisnow that he believed the sale was being held hostage by AHA's dispute with Integral over a land deal a previous housing head struck with Integral's leader, Egbert Perry, which many contended allowed Integral to purchase city-owned land for housing projects well below current market values.
But that fight ended in April when the city dropped its lawsuit against Integral. Since then, a new mayor has taken the helm at the city and Catherine Buell stepped down as AHA's chief executive.
Buell was one of a handful of city leadership holdovers from Mayor Kasim Reed's administration from whom Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has accepted resignations. AHA board member Brandon Riddick-Seals was recently appointed as interim CEO as the department conducts a national search for a new director. Kaplan told the Atlanta Business Chronicle the 17-story project could deliver in 2020.
