Camden Redevelops Prime Atlanta Property

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

Camden Property Trust has transformed a 1970s apartment complex it bought three years ago in the highly sought-after Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta into a luxury community called Camden Paces.

The $110 million upscale apartment community has 379 one-, two- and three-bedroom residences and townhomes, according to a news release from Camden. It is the first Buckhead apartment complex for the Houston-based REIT, which is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded multi-family developers. Camden owns 12 other apartment communities in the Atlanta area.

Located at 77 East Andrews Drive off West Paces Ferry Road, the 20-acre property is surrounded by schools, parks, retail and leisure amenities. The complex is less than a five-minute walk to Buckhead Village and uptown’s commercial neighborhood.

The townhomes and apartments include large floor plans, designer kitchens and energy-efficient windows. Swimming pools, a cross-training center, social gaming lounge and outdoor grilling pavilion are among the community amenities.

Camden bought the property in August 2011, paying $39.3 million for the site which had been planned to be the site of a new high school. Once that plan changed, the apartment complex generated interest from more than a dozen developers before Camden acquired the property. It was expected at the time that Camden would redevelop the aging complex because of its location near the Cherokee Town & Country Club and many upscale homes.

Buckhead is now one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Atlanta – and the busiest for  development. Of the more than 8,600 units under construction in the metro Atlanta area, about one-third are in the Buckhead submarket, according to Marcus & Millichap’s second-quarter ApartmentResearch market report for Atlanta.  One of the largest projects is the Residence Buchkead Atlanta, a 370-unit luxury complex where rents are expected to range from $1,570 to $2,625 per month when it is completed later this year, the report stated. With the local economy on the upswing, more than 26,500 apartments are in the planning pipeline for the Atlanta area. This year, nearly 7,000 units are expected to hit the market compared to 6,700 rentals last year, the Marcus & Millichap report noted.

Every Atlanta submarket saw rents increase in the first quarter this year, with Buckhead leading the way with a 10.9 percent year-to-year- increase in average rents to $1,271 per month.

Camden currently owns interests in, and operates, 170 properties containing 59,963 apartments across the United States. The REIT has 13 new developments under construction and is expanding an existing community. When those projects are completed, Camden’s portfolio will have 64,152 apartment homes in 183 properties.