Lake Oconee News
2007

Approval hinges on county, developer signing ‘Development agreement’

Eatonton – The Putnam County zoning ordinanace’s new approach to rezoning requests came into view Tuesday with the first of several large developments proposed for the Harmony road corridor.

Putnam commissioners unanimously approved the rezoning of 272.66 acres that would potentially allow 602 housing units conditioned by the signing of a “development agreement” between the county and developer.

“This represents the largest ever (project) confronting this commission and it is att the forefront of several others coming over the next 5 to 10 years,” said Landau, who serves as the commission’s point man on zoning and planning matters and represents District 3.

“Make no mistake, it (the Harmony Road corridor) will be developed,” he said.  “There are a potential 5,000 home sites in the planning stages.  It presents a tremendous challenge and a tremendous opportunity.  The trick is being able to balance the needs of the developer.”

Putnam’s share of GIM Synergy’s Kingston on Lake Oconee amounts to only about a third of the proposed project on the Putnam-Morgan line.  With the larger share of the project lands, Morgan County planners and commissioners have set the tone in negotiations with Synergy, but there has been considerable communication and cooperation between the two counties and  with Synergy.

Nonetheless, Putnam’s final approval of Tuesday’s rezoning still hinges on the commission approval of its development agreement with Synergy.  Already there is a 21-page draft agreement based on negotiations between Synergy officials and Landau.

One question is whether they are through with negotiations or whether there is more to come.

Synergy representative Don Davis praised the results of the negotiations so far, as did Preserve homeowners concerned about potential  traffic.  Landau, however, indicated more negotiations might still be in the works.

One such topic was introduced Tuesday by Putnam School Board chairman Steve Hersey.

Current plans call for a single pick-up point for any school children who might live in the development and Hersey asked that school buses be allowed entry into the gated community to pick up children within one-fourth mile of their homes.

The current agreement is based largely on Morgan’s agreement and Morgan does not allow its school buses to go onto private roads.  Putnam, however, now enters gated communities like Water’s Edge to pick up children Hersey said.

“If Putnam County wants it, that’s what we want to do,” said Davis.

Landau would not comment on the draft agreement’s contents.

“I can’t give up any details.  We are still in negotiations,” he said , “But I can tell you the kinds of things we will be talking about – the numbers of units, the kinds of units, streets and road specifications, infrastructure contributions.”

Some of the broader features of the coming agreement did emerge at the meeting.  Apparently already agreed on are an infrastructure contribution (of an unspecified amount to pave Marshall Road) and a change of the development’s main access pint three-fourths of a mile away from the existing Preserve at Sugar Creek.

The commission also quickly approved  four other smaller rezoning requests – Barry Darugan’s 506 acres on Crooked Creek Bay Road from AG-1 to R-1R;  Gene Callaway’s 15 acres on New Phoenix Road from AG-1 to AG-2; Daryl and Linda Stowe’s 10.69 acres on Crestview Road from R-2 to RM-1, and Franklin Johnston’s 44 acre on Ga. 44 behind the ReMax office from C-2 to RM-2 for four more condo units.

2007

The event:  A “1913 Hollywood Gala” on June 26 crated buzz about a prestigious new residential address in a landmark skyscraper downtown.  Organizers recreated the era when City Federal opened  and the Hollywood film industry began.

The scene:  Befitting a premiere, floodlights crisscrossed the terra-cotta façade of the Grande dame, which was the tallest building in the Southeast for 56 years.  For the first time, its top floors were lighted, illuminating architectural details and adding a glittering crown to the Birmingham skyline.

“Jean Harlow” (Becca Brewer) and “Rudolph Valentino” (Brain Sparks) mingled with guests on the first floor in what will be finished as commercial space.  Still under construction, the room was draped in black curtains.  On round tables were lamps created out of clear vases with white orchids inside, topped with silk shades with crystal drops.  Around the perimeter were columns topped with black and white plumes.  Guest admired ornate brass pocket doors, unnoticed for years and just recently found.  Ray Reach and Teena Wilson entertained.

Guests took elevators to the 18th floor to see two units.  Host and developer Bart Abstein of Atlanta welcomed them to the furnished model. Other hosts were Dan Tatum, Randy Herron and Wayne Etheridge of Synergy Realty Services in Atlanta.

On the walls were prints showing the City Federal Building from the time the first beam was laid through the years.

Providence Paulin with Andrea Carmichael mixed modern and antique pieces, since the building is at once new and historic.

Everyone  exclaimed about the vista through Pella windows toward the smokestacks at Sloss Furnaces.

Spotted:  Kat Stewart wore a black fringed  cocktail dress that belonged to her grandmother, the late Alice McLean.  Marianne Sharbel came in a vintage dress of black crepe with silver starbursts that belonged to the late Josephine Sharbel.  Also elegant were Margie Ingram, Glenda Cochran, Maggie Jamison and Connie Swillie.

Marie Reach and her husband, Stan, chatted with two friends from Marie’s City Federal days, Diane Dial and Linda James.  “I’m glad the building is getting a new life,” Linda said, speaking for all of them.  Marie wore a gold chain with a pendant that had been the gold City Federal pin she wore to work every day until City Federal closed in 1994.

Some others were George Lynn, Gambrill Lynn, Reynolds Whately, Bob Burton and Andrea Carmichael, Harold Goings, Carole Ann and Bob Moorer, Susan Matlock and Mike Calvert, Jeff Langdon, Tammy Cohen, Ken Rubsamen, Joe O’Donnell, Wendell and Anne Martin, Grace and Anthony Lessa, Renee Meredith, Wendy Wood, Jack McKay, Babs Simpson and Greg Despinakis, Jan Bailey and Carol and Rust Stewart.

The Birmingham News
August 2007

Critical mass, it’s a term you hear a lot when you talk to those involved in downtown development – from city officials to residents of the many new condominiums.

They all seem to think the Magic City has attained a proverbial magic number, which will entice retail outlets – and perhaps even one or more large grocery chains – to set up shop in the heart of downtown Birmingham.

According to Chris Hatcher, vice president of planning for Operation New Birmingham (ONB), that magic number might be 3,000 – which he said is the approximate number of people living downtown today.  Another number in the mix is 80,000 – the average weekday population, which ranks downtown as the largest employment center and economic generator in the state.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that the success we’re experiencing right now will keep building, “Hatcher said.

His caution is likely due, in part, to the slow revitalization of downtown Birmingham.   The trend of urban flight, which left many magnificent office buildings, hotels and storefronts in our city abandoned, was seen across the United States.

Following World War II, the interstate highway construction boom, along with the increased affordability of automobiles, triggered the rapid growth of suburban areas to the detriment of downtowns.  These and other factors stymied Birmingham’s growth, and it has taken the city a long time to recover.  And, most experts would agree, we’re not there yet.

This year marks ONB’s 50th anniversary brokering partnerships between government and corporate interests downtown.  Formed as the Downtown Business Improvement Association in 1957, the organization has spent the ensuing decades fighting urban sprawl.

Recently joining in this effort – as an ONB subcommittee – is the Downtown Business Association (DBA).  While ONB’s primary mission is to attract new business downtown, DBA’s focus is on promoting those businesses once they open.  Since the many downtown dwellers are relative newcomers, this largely amounts to an awareness campaign.

The DBA’s website at downtownbirmingham.orge is a resource that is a hub of information for downtown residents.  In addition to a calendar of events and emergency numbers, the site provides links to local utilities, transportation providers and schools.

Perhaps more effective than Internet marketing however, is a good, old-fashioned party, like the one held this past springs at Superior Bank.  Local residents and business owners turned out for the “Meet and Greet” event, which proved to be just that – a great opportunity for people to meet face-to-face and get to know each other better.  In addition to fostering a sense of community, the result of these events seems to be optimism – for the potential of future community growth.

“We’re just trying to let people know that downtown is still being revitalized, but that we are here, we have a solid investment in downtown and it’s going to work,” said DBA president Gail Daw.

Clearly working now are the attempts by developers to draw young professionals to new downtown condominiums and lofts.  Whether it’s aesthetics like soaring ceilings, exposed brick walls and stainless-steel appliances or the convenience of being within walking distance of bars and workplaces, the demand is there.

“People are moving into these condos.” said Daw.  “We pass the Bristol every morning – a few months ago there was one apartment with blinds and now there’s so many I can’t count.”

By all accounts, demand is outpacing supply and several complexes are due to come online in the next year or so.

Some of the latest developments:

• Move-ins are scheduled to begin at City Federal by the end of July with 82 units eventually being offered.
• Athens Flatts, at Second Avenue north and 23rd Street will offer 33 condos beginning in late summer.
• The 20-story Leer Tower, opened in 1930 as the Thomas Jefferson Hotel, is due to be refurbished into 60 upscale residences in the coming months.

What developers are hoping for next in an influx of large retail anchors, in particular grocery stores, to the downtown cityscape.

“We really need and are ready for, a neighborhood grocery store.” said Jacob Tubbs, a resident of Legg Lofts on First Avenue North.  “I’ll drive to Piggly Wiggly on Clairmont, Publix on Montclair, V. Richards or Whole Foods, just depending on where my errands take me.”

With the recent closing of Torme’s, one of the few small stores catering to foot traffic is the Neighborhood Market at Third Avenue North and 23rd Street, which packs as many food staples and sundries as possible into its approximately 700 square feet.

One new shop is bound to delight residents:  The Continental Bakery of English Village plans to open a location downtown.  It may be the start of what residents have been hoping for.

“It’s not quite a chicken and egg situation,” said Dick Schmalz, owner of RGS Properties, Inc. a commercial real estate developer.  “They look just as much at the future market as they do at the existing market, but I’m getting some very positive comments from major grocery stores that the market has reached the point where it bears their consideration.”

It’s likely only a matter of time before consideration turns into action, borne out by market forces.

Portico Magazine
August 2007, Pg 59

The City Federal sign will kick on, hiss, and steadily buzz in minutes.  Its six-foot red porcelain letters, channeled with hand bent glass tubing and flowing with neon, atomic number 10, stand restored and relit atop the one time tallest building in the South.  Afternoon wanes, the sunlight disappearing over the Birmingham valley south of Vulcan’s torch and the WBRC sign, and I stand more that 25 stories above the city, waiting for the reddish brightness to click on, surveying the streets below and thinking of Ernest Langner, the CITY’s sign maker of decades past.

Downtown Birmingham once mounted as many neon signs as it did electric traffic signals.  King’s Catfish King, the Shoe Tree, Bohemian Bakery, City Hardware, Alabame Engine Exchange, wheaten Printing Company, Atlanta Life, the Jewel Box and Dixie Cream Donuts all burned their vacuous glass tubes of mercury, helium, neon and other noble gases during day and nighttime hours.  Others the same.  “Outside of the War,” Langner says, “they burned all the time.  And during the War, nightwatchmen and policeman could flip the blackout switches in case of something…an emergency.”  His words bring history-book time to real life, talking of the gunpowder plant in Childersbur, Homewood’s Chicken in the Rough, the Bessemer Super Highway and Roebuck Lanes.  He speaks of movie houses like they were childhood friends.

The theaters of yesteryear – the Lyric, Erlanger, West-O-Rama, the Temple, Pantages, along with the saved Alabama Theater – once hummed with electricity.  These city fixtures served as the largest of the lit script, and the Alabama singulary began Langner’s life of sign making.  “My first job was replacing the bulbs outside the Alabama, “the spry 92 year old says. “They were painted yellow and terribly difficult to wire.”

Langner as a young man cofounded Dixie Neon, one of the two largest such sign makers in the area, along with Alabam Neon, and he hung electric color along these commercial streets for five decades.  Pharmacies, barbecue joints, drive-ins, insurance sellers, car dealers, department stores, burger stands, motels, camera shops, barber shops, shoe shops and a dozen Baptist churches all rang Langner and Dixie Neon to design, build and erect signs as small as a suitcase and as big as school buses.  But nearly all of the hundreds of neon signs, those great relics of the roaring years of life and business in downtown Birmingham, do not buzz or shimmerin the cool of night anymore.  They are mostly gones.  For years, at best, they have fastened with rusted-out gasless beauty over for-sale storefronts and long left spaces.

Today, other thatn Hunter’s Furniture, Pete’s Famous Hot Dpogs and the WBRC on Red Mountain, CITY FEDERAL’s letters are some of the only neon-lit icons downtown.  But as they once said, the “liquid fire” is burning again, as both a reclaimed nod to the glass and porcelain craft and a bright beacon towards the lively days to come again.

The Birmingham News
July 8, 2007

Margi Ingram confesses she is anything by neutral when it comes to condo and townhome living.

Ingram, who has 30 years experience in selling residential properties, including those in SoHo, the Narrows, Ross Bridge and the City Federal Building has lived in a condo or townhome all her adult life, she said.

“I just love it,” said Ingram who lived in Park Tower for 20 years before moving to her condominium at the Townes of English Village.  “It’s so convenient.  It’s a life saver.”

Ingram heads Daniel Homes’ residential sales division, which is working on about 25 condo/townhome communities with a total of 1,400 condos/townhomes.

Ingram said she doesn’t expect the Birmingham condo market to suffer a major dip I sales like other areas around the country.  She talks about the state of the market and what buyers want in a condo these days.

Q. It seems like  condo/townhome closings are up this year. What do you attribute that to?
A. These units that closed in this year were sold a year and a half ago.  At the Bristol, for instance, we sold 156 in the spring of ’05.  It took them this long to build them.  We closed 30 last year.  In this year, we closed 126 of them…There was a lot of activity in ’05 and more than half of them had to be built.  It’s been a long process.  Some are three to three and a half years out.  For that reason, it may look like the market it more vigorous than it is.

Q. Does that mean the market is in a slowdown?
A. You could safely and accurately say it’s like the existing housing market.  Certain price ranges are very viable and certain areas are very much in demand.  But if you have a $600,000 condo and you want to sell it for $1 million, you may have trouble if you don’t lower the price.

Still, we had people spending the night – camping out – to buy 14 townhomes at Ross Bridge and we sold all of them the next morning.  So demand is there for a certain price rand in certain areas.

Like housing, the more popular price range is entry level.  It’s always been that way.

Q. Has the condo/townhome customer changed recently?
A. We saw a few investors come back into the market with Ross Bridge, but what we’re pretty much seeing is the homeowner is buying the condo.

Q. What do you say to concerns that the condo market is being overbuilt?
A. I think they’re talking about the coastal areas, where there is trouble  because of the lack of affordable insurance and because people haven’t been able to get their condos repaired from past storms.  That’s not our market at all.

But we have seen more moderation among developers in Birmingham during the last six months.  There are other opportunities for developers…apartment building and office construction are back strong, so some are going back to that.

1. What do most buyers want when they’re looking at a condo or townhome?
2. The garage is No. 1, storage is another…I guess the next thing would be a gathering place such as a clubhouse or pool.  We’ve planned four wildflower gardens, a pool, there will be shopping and other amenities at Trussville Springs.

1. What kinds of interior features do buyers want in condos?
2. We’re seeing finishes such as hardwoods in the living areas, carpet in the bedrooms.  We’re seeing finishes such as hardwoods in the living areas, carpet in the bedrooms.  We’re seeing some concrete floors, either stained or painted, downtown.  Granite countertops are pretty much standard.

When the market was so good, everybody got spoiled I guess and it’s hard to come back down.

The Birmingham News
June 23, 2007

Danny Rothe of M&A Electric adjusts flood lights on one side of the 20th floor exterior at City Federal Building in downtown Birmingham.  Next week, all four sides of the building should have flood lights shining at night, as well as the restored City Federal signs at the top of the building.  The lighting display is designed by CRS Engineering and Design Consultants of Birmingham to highlight the long-shuttered building that is being converted into condominiums.

The Birmingham News
March 11, 2007

It’s a matter of supply and demand.  The demand for urban residences in Birmingham has been growing for years and many developers and realtors find themselves in the midst of a shift from suburban development to a renewed interest in downtown living.

“There’s been a demand for downtown living and nothing had come on the market that was highly advertised,” said Margi Ingram, president of Ingram & Associates, which has sold and co-developed communities across the Birmingham area.  Her firm is developing the City Federal Building, Athens Flats and Leer Tower – three downtown loft communities that have already experienced pre-sales that equal more than 50 percent of total planned units.

City Federal the tallest building in Alabama until 1969 and among the tallest residential buildings in the Southeast for many years will be transformed into an 83-unit loft development.  Construction has begun and homes will be ready for occupancy later this year.  “People waited and waited for it to be redone.”  Ingram said.  “It’s quite an undertaking.”

The anticipated reopening of the historic 27-story building is one of a number of redevelopments in the City Center that will meet the growing demand for urban residences.  For example, construction isn’t planned to begin until mid-2007 for Leer Tower, but that hasn’t slowed its marketing efforts or the anticipation of its opening.

“We have a lot of Baby Boomers, “Ingram said, “they want to move back to town and away from yard work and higher maintenance.” Young professionals make up a large percentage of downtown residents and courting them to downtown is not a hard sell.

“It’s the lifestyle,” said Sally Tuttle, broker with Ingram & Associates’ Condominium Shoppe.  “There’s been a need for urban lifestyle and it’s never been offered to the magnitude it is now.  Our supply is finally catching up.”

Redeveloped properties and a competitive mix of amenities and features within the homes have so far provided a “build it and they will come” approach to sales and marketing.  From concierge services and onsite management to polished concrete floors and secured parking decks, downtown living has grown up.  More commercial and retail developments also make the area more appealing.

“We know the business districts are expanding,” Tuttle said.  More office space, restaurants and boutiques breed more potential residents – residents who want quality living space in a thriving community.

Birmingham Business Journal
Aug. 11, 2006

Condominium projects are all over downtown, beyond; can the Birmingham market sustain a flood of new units?

The $90 million, proposed Village at University Park on Lakeshore Drive and The Avenues Lofts, a $1.6 million historic conversion on First Avenue North downtown, reflect two very different faces of the Birmingham condo market.

The metro area contains a growing stock of conversions, both historic and not, as well as a fair number of ambitious new condo projects, some coming out of the ground and some existing only on paper.

Market watchers say not all of these projects will happen, due to factors such as surging construction costs which make them unfeasible.  But overall, they say, the Magic City’s condo market is still ripe for growth.

In the City Federal building downtown, a $22 million historic condo conversion that many say is a direct reflection of the market, 50 of 84 units ranging from $250,000 to $1 million are under contract, including a million-dollar penthouse says Randy Herron, principal of Synergy Realty Services of Atlanta.

Developers say hard contracts in projects under construction, such as the City Federal, show the market is far from tapped

At 2316 First Avenue, North, developers Michael Morrow and Andrew Morrow and Jamie Cawood, doing business with a silent Atlanta partner as Fires Avenue Partners LLC, held an open house a few weeks ago to formally unveil The Avenues, a conversion of 1900s, four-story brick structure with eight condos ranging from $229,000 to $324,000.  After the open house, the partners are negotiating a contract on one.

Cawood says they are targeting buyers who plan to live in the units, rather than flippers.

He says their project was helped by having an investor with deep pockets instead of having to wait on financing before they could get started.  People are more apt to buy something they can see and touch, he says.

Operation New Birmingham President Michael Calvert agrees, noting that hard contracts are always better than refundable reservations.

Take, for example, The Village.  In October 2005, 100 prospective buyers plunked down their $2,500 checks to reserve condos in the Daniel Corp. development near Stamford University, but that project has since been put on indefinite hold.

“We have curtailed selling efforts and are studying a number of options, including other kinds of residential development,” says Daniel senior vice president, Charles Carlisle.  The development was proposed with 150 condos starting in the $400,000s, as well as retail.

Carlisle offers scant detail about what the revamped plan will look like but says the decision can be traced directly to an “unprecedented run up” in construction costs that began in early 2005 and that he fears is permanent.

“It translated into higher sales prices and really dampened enthusiasm.”  He says.

Another project that has yet to materialize is the $25 million 2600 Highland condos on Highland Avenue.  Developer Ingram Tynes says he and his partners are finalizing financing from First Commercial Bank now, and have 43 percent of the 41 units there reserved.

He says they plan to start turning dirt in about three weeks.

Projects of a smaller scale, meanwhile, often come to fruition quickly.

Highland Terrace condos, a historic conversion on Highland Avenue undertaken last year by John Lauriello, Gip Plott and Gary Olshan, contained 16 units that quickly sold out at their original price range of $155,000 to $162,000.  Several have gone back on the market recently for considerably more and many newer conversions in the Highland Park area have price tags of $200,000 and up and are coming along quickly with solid sales.

Downtown, projects such as the Wheelock Condos which debuted in 1987 and that Calvert says were Birmingham’s first, are full and new historic conversions are enjoying a warm reception also.

According to the most recent data from Operation New Birmingham, the city center now has about 1,700 condos and apartments, with occupancy exceeding 90 percent.  About 2,500 people live there now, and that number is expected to grown as more developments come online and are filled.

In addition, there are nearly 350 new condo units under construction, as well as 600 rental units currently being built, including those in the Hope VI mixed-income development Park Place and several hundred geared toward students near the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Compare that to Memphis, a larger market where 3,633 condo units are either complete, planned or under construction in the 6.5 mile downtown area, according to data from the City Center Commission.

CCC President Jeff Sanford says there are not 28,000 people living in either condos or the 5,800 apartments in downtown Memphis.

The area has enjoyed 10 percent annual population growth while the rest of the metro area has remained flat, he says Sanford’s generally positive outlook is tempered by the concern that the Memphis market eventually could become overbuilt, with units staying on the market for longer periods of time.

In Birmingham, both conversions and new conversions and new constructions projects are spreading to areas like Homewood, Highland Park and Hoover.  And for now at least, it appears developers who bring the right plans to the table are having no trouble getting their projects financed.

Tom Carruthers III, who has several sale and rental projects on the drawing boards, says he gets calls every week from prospective buyers or renters, many new to the area, who want to live downtown.

“To the extent that a project is finished and complete, I don’t think those units remain unsold very long,” Carruthers says.

If they have location, parking and amenities, projects can be priced in pretty much any range and still sell, developers say.

For example:  Of the 156 units at Bristol Southside, 145 are under contract, says co-developer David Hanchrow of Memphis.

Units in that development hit the market last summer $180 per square foot and today fetch around $210.  They range from 500 square feet to 630, he says.

A few miles away at The Capri on Niazuma Avenue, just off Highland, 53 condos are priced from the upper $500,000s to $1.4 million.

Developer Tom Hinton, who is working with Herman Bessem and Mike Spiker, president and managing director of co-developer Euro American Advisors, spays the condos are 60 percent sold.

“We’ve gotten a lot more interest now that we’re visible, which is probably natural.”  Hinton says,

Hinton, who lives close to The Capri, visits it often and says the views from the first floor are better than expected- “spectacular” even.

“We’ve actually even had an increase in prices that have been driven by demand,” he says.

Buyers of units at The Capri have been doctors who like the luxury, amenities and proximity to UAB, an engineer and an interior designer, says Hinton.

He expects the first residents to move in during summer of 2007.

Although its price tag puts it out of reach for the average person, The Capri nonetheless has those crucial ingredients that make it a success, says Art Freeman of Red Mountain Bank.

Freeman says lenders like to see a significant number of presales, not reservations, before they fiancé a project.

ONB’s Calvert says that an active worksite such as that of The Capri typically indicates hard contracts. “Once properties are under contract that’s pretty reliable.” He says.

“It’s the reservations that are sometimes misleading.  Sometimes it’s people that are just speculating.”

In lieu of hard contracts, a lender would also be more willing to finance a project where the developer or developers put up some money.” says Freeman.

The Capri has not only contracts but millions from its developers.

“Any lender would appreciate that.”  Freeman says.

The City Federal project is being funded by a silent investor in Europe and by Regions Bank, Herron says.

Hinton’s work isn’t limited to luxury condos.  He was also the developer of English Village Court, a successful conversion in Birmingham near the Mountain Brook city limits that had units starting in the $160,000s.

“It has an incredible location, the size was ample and it was affordable.”  Freeman says.

“It had everything going for it.  It was an A-plus recipe for success.”

No matter the price point, he says, “If you’ve got a developer with wherewithal and experience, you’re generally going to produce a winner.

Birmingham Business Journal
Jun. 26, 2006

Transformation of the historic City Federal Building into luxury condos is on track, with the first of several of 84 units scheduled for delivery in 2006 and the remainder going online in the second quarter of 2007, say the developer and general contractor.

General contractor Charles & Vinzant Construction Company is starting at the penthouse and working its way down.

Real estate watchers often point to the $20 million renovation of the 27-story 1913 landmark at Second Avenue North and Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard as a true indicator of the health of the urban condo market.

With very little marketing done so far, developer Randy Herron is pleased with the response.  More than 60 of the units have sold, including a $1 million-plus penthouse.  Ingram & Associates is marketing the units, which will boast high-end finishes.

Herron is a principal with Synergy Realty Services, LLC, an Atlanta company that specializes in real estate development, property management and advisory services.

Synergy announced plans to buy the City Federal in March 2005, closing the deal in June 2005 after 153 parking spaces had been secured from the city.

Herron says Synergy is working with Wells Fargo Financial to provide special financing for buyers of City Federal condos, such as one that has a 15 month rate lock.

Synergy began working with general contractor Charles & Vinzant in July of last year, formally signing a contract with Birmingham firm to handle 100 percent of the renovation in January.

Synergy originally hired Brasfield & Gorrie LLC, but Herron says Charles & Vinzant, a veteran of downtown renovation, was simply a better fit and agreed to do the job at the right price.

Charles & Vinzant co-founder Charles Ferlisi says projects like the City Federal are “the most fun” and most rewarding.

The 28-year old firm also renovated the Kress building for law firm Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis LLC, the Clark building for law firm Lightfoot Franklin & White LLC and is currently working on the Massey building, a condo renovation.

Ferlisi likens renovations to a puzzle where one must fit new to old.

“If you build a new building, you’re building in dirt and air; but, when you do a renovation like this, you’ve got to take the existing structural capacity into consideration.  You might have to relocate a wall to make cabinets or an electrical system fit.

“That’s just inherent to this type of work,” he continues.  “(City Federal) is not different than any of the others.”

Ferlisi says his team, which currently consists of 40 to 50 workers each day, is “at the end of the beginning” of the renovation, with demolition nearly complete, and will soon start building the interiors back.

Within several months, there will be 60 to 75 workers on the site.

The project manager is Harry Markham.  Cohen Carnaggio Reynolds is the project architect.

Herron says another contract closed last week at City Federal, where prices start at about $250,000.  He says Ingram has seen strong interest in all sizes of units.

City Federal also will have 13,000 square feet of commercial space on its ground floor that has garnered interest from restaurants and banks, Herron says.

If Synergy’s Birmingham debut works out as well as Herron predicts, he doesn’t rule out other downtown renovations.

“We’re excited about the Birmingham market and will continue to look for opportunities here,” he says.

The Birmingham News
Jul. 14, 2006

Workers for Charles & Vinzant Construction are taking the restoration of the City Federal Building to new heights – 27 stories to be exact.

Renovation of the former bank and office building into condo is moving from the top of what was once the South’s tallest tower downward.

Realtors with Ingram & Associates’ Condominium Shoppe have secured sales contracts on 51 of the 83 condos, including the penthouse on the 25th floor, says Bart Abstein, principal over development with Synergy Realty Services, the Atlanta developer handling the $20 million project.

The 25th floor penthouse went for about $1.8 million.  The 23rd floor has two units still for sale:  one for $1 million and the other for $850,000.

Interior demolition and asbestos removal are complete and construction work has started, Abstein says.  Care is being taken to preserve many of the more orate elements of the building, such as the terra cotta exterior features and the ceiling panels in the ground floor lobby.

Abstein says there have been talks with high-end restaurants for a location in the basement.  The lobby and former bank area of the building are likely to hold another bank, he says though the possibility remains for some other commercial use.

The first condos should be ready by the first quarter of 2007.  The entire renovation project is expected to be finished by the end of next summer.