The city of Atlanta will spend $39 million to buy a 41-story downtown office tower from Georgia’s state government, saying the city will redevelop the aging building to include mixed-income housing and other uses.
The state has owned the 2 Peachtree Street building for about 30 years. It was the tallest building in Atlanta when it was built in 1968 for the First National Bank of Atlanta, which eventually became part of Wells Fargo & Co.
The state has been emptying the tower of government tenants, moving some into vacant offices around the state capitol. Some state agencies downsized after concluding during the coronavirus pandemic that remote work meant they needed less office space.
The state budgeted $45 million earlier this year to move out of 2 Peachtree. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England said then that it would cost more to renovate the building than it was worth. Georgia spent more than $100 million on an earlier round of renovations.
Dickens said the site is prime for affordable housing because it’s next to the the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s Five Points rail station. He said housing would go on top, with offices and stores and restaurants on lower floors, and that redevelopment would “move us closer to our vision of a world-class downtown area.”
