As commercial real estate brokers, Michael Palazzone and Tim Head have been part of deals involving interesting Atlanta properties, representing the sellers of downtown’s Odd Fellows Building as one example. But more recently, they’ve itched to buy land and create their own residential developments, helping fill the city’s housing void with denser options such as townhomes and making a buck in the process.
Early last year, the two heads of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services found what seemed like an opportune place to start: a .9-acre corner property at 2535 Glenwood Avenue in East Lake. Listed for $650,000, the lot is home to a vacant single-family house with a garage workshop behind it—owned by someone in California—that Head describes as an “old and beat… rat trap” with a squatter problem.
But beyond the lot’s size, the location was enticing. It overlooks the clubhouse and manicured greens of East Lake Golf Club, with a MARTA bus route running just outside of what, as Head and Palazzone envisioned it, would be the front doors of future townhomes. “We just felt like it was an underutilized piece of land,” says Palazzone, the firm’s director, “and a good location to do what we’re trying to do.”
The would-be developers met with Pimsler–Hoss Architects and cooked up plans for 12 townhomes on the corner, with hopes of pricing them from about $500,000. They began a series of communal meetings, revisions, and compromise. But a year and ½ later, Head and Palazzone feel their vision for “Glenwood Homes” has been unfairly torpedoed by a small but vocal group of adjacent homeowners resistant to change.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” says Head, a principal. “All the people in the city are screaming for housing—we’re trying to provide housing. We’ve been so wronged.”
The existing vacant house at the .9-acre corner site at 2535 Glenwood Avenue. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta
The East…
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