Live For Buzz

So hot on the heels of yesterday’s news about East Atlanta Antiques closing up shop comes word that the building was actually sold last Monday for $1.4 million. DeKalb County online property records are notoriously slow to be updated, but a little bit of informed sleuthing showed the buyer to be an LLC controlled by Jeff Notrica, the head honcho at Inman Park Properties.

I’ve written a lot about Notrica and Inman Park Properties over at Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom, but a quick primer for those who may not be familiar.

Inman Park Properties is a large “developer” of commercial property here in Atlanta. The company has a reputation for buying up properties and sitting on them for a long, long time. And often, the properties they own are left vacant and allowed to rot away, affecting the character of their neighborhoods surrounding them. Here in East Atlanta, Jeff Notrica’s most infamous property is the John B. Gordon School, a former Atlanta Public School that Inman Park Properties purchased a decade ago with promises to turn it into fabulous intown lofts.

Here’s a look at their progress on the Gordon School:

Also in Notrica’s decaying-property portfolio are the former B&W Market and East Atlanta Lock & Key right in the heart of EAV. While Inman Park Properties does have most of their properties in East Atlanta leased (they are landlord to Village Hardware, The Glenwood, My Sister’s Room, Holy Taco, the new Midway Pub and several other businesses), the company’s willingness to leave properties sitting vacant and decaying is a big concern.

So when it’s revealed the Notrica purchased the Antiques Store property last month and I stumble across the fact that an LLC of his purchased the property where the East Atlanta Post Office sits late last year; well, it’s concerning.

The map below shows which EAV properties are owned by the major landlords here. Inman Park Properties is in red.

View Larger Map

Knowing that so much of EAV is owned by a guy who’s willing to let properties sit vacant and rotting if that meets his long-term business goals is unsettling, and the fact that Notrica seems to quietly buy up every property that becomes available is more than unsettling.

Buzzers see a day when Notrica owns the entire Village, kicks everybody out, tears the place down and builds some new, faux-authentic condos-above-stores development.

On EAV Buzz: RE: East Atlanta Antiques, Inman Park Properties owns the post office and Updated map of EAV property owners

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under East Atlanta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.