ATLANTA — Pellerin Real Estate has purchased the former Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Atlanta Downtown & Conference Center, a 375-room hotel in south Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood. Atlanta-based Pellerin is partnering with New York-based Life House via its management arm, Life Hospitality, to stabilize the property and explore redevelopment opportunities. The former hotel is located next to Center Parc Stadium, Georgia State University’s (GSU) football stadium that was once the Atlanta Braves home ballpark (Turner Field), as well as a site for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
The property is adjacent to Summerhill, an 80-acre master development by Carter USA and GSU. Phase I will feature 306 apartments with 8,575 square feet of ground-level retail, 82,000 square feet of grocery-anchored retail, the redevelopment of 47,000 square feet along Georgia Avenue, a 676-bed student housing project, 100 townhomes and build-to-suit Class A office space. GSU recently announced a new $85 million, 8,000-seat athletic arena that will be directly across the street from the former hotel and is expected to deliver in 2022.
Pellerin and Life House are partnering to grow their hospitality portfolio by a minimum of 1,000 rooms over the next 12 months. The firms are targeting 100- to 300-room midscale hotels in the Sunbelt, focusing on markets such as Atlanta, Jacksonville, Dallas and Orlando.