Politics & Government

Sam Massell Says Buckhead's Economy Again Vibrant

Buckhead Coalition president in 'state of the community' address cites crime reduction, business activity and less traffic congestion

Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition, said Thursday morning that Buckhead is showing robust signs of economic health.

 “Buckhead has indeed turned the corner,” Massell said in his annual "State of the Community" address, presented at the weekly Buckhead Business Association breakfast meeting.

Massell, known as the mayor of Buckhead, said that the community's oversupply of office space at the start of the recession actually proved beneficial.

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The former Atlanta mayor said that overabundance of space “put our community in the enviable position of having supply when the demand came back.” Now, he said, Buckhead office buildings are showing strong lending activity, with all over 50 percent occupancy and a couple at 90 percent.

Along with APD Zone 2, which includes Buckhead, leading the city with a 13 percent crime decrease last year, Massell cited a cluster of new construction showing that Buckhead is ahead of other metro submarkets in its economic recovery.

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He cited such projects as the new North Atlanta High building on Northside Parkway; OliverMcMillan’s beginning construction in the spring on Buckhead Atlanta; Tishman-Speyer’s plans for a third office tower,  a 560,000-square-foot project, at the Alliance Center at Lenox Road and Phipps Boulevard; Camden Property Trust’s apartment development at the Paces Apartments site on Roswell Road and East Andrews and the state’s impending addition of the ramp connecting Ga. 400 and I-85. The latter, he said, will greatly reduce traffic congestion on surface streets in the Sidney Marcus corridor.

Massell said the accumulation of new projects shows the economic recovery is at full speed. “You see the trend?” he said. “Does it come to mind that not a single project was under construction, nor even one announced, during the past three years, during the rececessionary period? It's pretty evident that Buckhead has indeed turned the corner.”

Summing up Buckhead’s position as the leading luxury market in Atlanta, Masell said it was “the last to feel the downtown and the first to enjoy the recovery.”


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