UPDATE:  Here’s a response about the purchase from Oakhurst Realty’s Fisher Paty…

We are thrilled about the acquisition of this building. Our goal is to be good stewards of this historic building and to help downtown Avondale Estates become a thriving commercial area. We believe the downtown area has tremendous upside and hope to help start the momentum.

From Bisnow Atlanta…

Late last week, we chatted with David Andes who informed us his firm has sold what amounts to Downtown Avondale Estates, the 26k SF retail/office tudor style building that is the landmark to the area on the main intersection. Atlanta-based Oakhurst Realty Partners purchased the building (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) for $1.08M, according to Databank.

Bisnow says that it took two years to consummate the sale and that we should stay tuned to hear what Oakhurst Realty has “in store” for the Tudor style retail strip.

Photo courtesy of duien via Flickr

h/t: Patch

Adams Realtors sums up residential real estate action over the past 12 months in the City of Decatur and the specific neighborhoods of Glenwood Estates, Oakhurst, Great Lakes and Winnona Park – along with Pine Lake and Avondale Estates – over on its blog.  Here’s a the top-line summary…

According to our October 2010 survey, all of the Central DeKalb markets, except Avondale Estates, had a year over year drop in Average Sales Price. The Number of Days on the Market was down in Decatur and Avondale Estates and up in Pine Lake. Pine Lake and Decatur, as well as the Decatur neighborhoods of Oakhurst and Glenwood Estates, were markets that experienced an increase in the Number of Units Sold over the last year. Pine Lake, Glenwood Estates, Oakhurst and the City of Decatur were the only markets that had an increase in Annual Sales Volume from 2009 to 2010.

For more neighborhood specific analysis, check out their full blog post.

h/t: InDecatur

Another issue of Focus is in the mail! [Thanks InDecatur]

Lots of the development issues we’ve discussed here and over at the aforementioned InDecatur are covered. The obvious difference here is that the city is talking…so they’re a little less interesting than us opinionated bloggers, but they have all the inside dish! (that they’re willing to share)

Examples include…

315 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.

The city reports, like we did last month [InDecatur /Decatur Metro], that Decatur Court at 315 West Ponce has a new owner that plans to keep the existing office building and build residential and a parking deck on the existing parking lot. My original posting mentioned a potential issue with building height for the bungalows along Ponce Pl. Sure enough, a couple homes still have “No High Rise Next to R60″ signs in their yards left over from the Old Decatur condo battle. Should be interesting….

Art Institute of Atlanta

The city has given us a little more detail on this project too, beyond the press releases that alerted us to it a couple weeks ago [InDecatur/Decatur Metro] Apparently the school will put a student art gallery on the first floor fronting Ponce, next to Quiznos, brightening up a piece of the most unfriendly pedestrian building in the city (I say that with no due respect). Also the blurb answers my question about a start date for classes, asked here. “Plans are to start small, and add classes over the next year.”

Mick’s

InDecatur pointed this one out just a few days ago and I piggy-backed. I’m still perplexed why I didn’t notice. The city cites “financial problems” that closed the entire chain. A commenter at InDecatur dishes juicer gossip, “I ran into one of their bartenders a few months back, who told me that the license was suspended because of nonpayment of back taxes.” The city goes on to assure the public that they’ll find the right establishment to fill this prime locale.

Trinity Triangle

OK, so here’s the one we haven’t seen any updates on. After months of delays, demolition is scheduled to start this month on the oh-so-sketchy Relax Inn, the old temporary city hall, and the mostly burnt down “My Sister’s Room”. Dairy Queen will need to be relocated for a time, but has been promised a spot in the new development. This blurb from Intown Atlanta gives a little more insight… “Both of these establishments will be demolished to make way for Decatur’s first downtown apartment development in more than a decade.” Anyone know who the developer is or what the plans look like?

…thanks to the mortgage crisis.

A report created for the U.S. Conference of Mayors shows that Atlanta’s GMP (Gross Metropolitan Product) will decline 0.6 points to 3% (a loss of $954 million) thanks to the current correction taking place in the real estate market.  As bad as this massive number may sound, Atlanta (thankfully!) does not to come close to appearing in the top 10 metro areas with the largest loss of GMP.  That honor belongs to New York City ($10 billion), L.A. ($8.3 billion) Dallas ($4 Billion) , Washington ($4 Billion) and Chicago ($4 Billion).

This shouldn’t be a huge shock to anyone, in Atlanta or elsewhere.  The real estate market continues to see the largest declines in areas that just a couple years ago, were producing the largest profits for investors.  While Atlantans used to shake their heads as valuations in Florida, California and other metro regions returned mind-blowing profits for investors, we should now be thrilled that Atlanta has seen a more modest correction (even if foreclosures are some of the highest in the country).

Thanks to all the mortgage lenders and people that over-extended themselves with mortgages they couldn’t afford.  This massive correction couldn’t have been possible without your support.