Downtown Atlanta’s first skyscraper, the historic Flatiron Building, could be redeveloped into an incubator to foster entrepreneurship in the city’s core. According to a report in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Arun Nijhawan managing principal with Lucror Resources, LLC plans to buy and renovate the 40,000 square foot building into a “collaborative place” for Atlanta’s “makers, thinkers, and doers,” according to a document filed with Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm.
Invest Atlanta offered Lucror a $1.5 million loan to help offset acquisition and renovation costs, which are expected to top $10 million. Nijhawan, a distressed real estate investor, expects to acquire the Flatiron in March and have it renovated by the end of the year.
Nijhawan, former real estate chief of $5 billion hedge fund GMT Capital, has raised $8.7 million, most of it in private equity. The development will include more than 36,000 square feet of collaborative workspace designed for more than 330 creatives, and design-led startups and entrepreneurs. The building will include event space, and 5,600 square feet of ground floor retail space.
