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The Equitable Life Assurance Building is a 32-story, 453 foot (138 m) tall office building in
Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
. It is located at 100
Peachtree Street Peachtree Street is one of several major streets running through the city of Atlanta. Beginning at Five Points in downtown Atlanta, it runs North through Midtown; a few blocks after entering into Buckhead, the name changes to Peachtree Road ...
in the Fairlie-Poplar neighborhood in
downtown Atlanta Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The larger of the city's two other commercial districts ( Midtown and Buckhead), it is the location of many corporate and regional headquarters; city, county, ...
. A typical example of an
International-style International style may refer to: * International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture * International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art * International Style (dancing), a term used ...
skyscraper, the building was designed by
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
-based
architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and was constructed in 1968 on the site of the former Piedmont Hotel. The building's "EQUITABLE" signage was an easily recognizable piece of the downtown Atlanta skyline, while the tower's black finish stood in sharp contrast to the surrounding buildings. The building's signage was changed in late 2018 to now host a digital signage board for the new main tenants. The Equitable Building is adjacent to the historic Flatiron Building and the historic Rhodes-Haverty Building. The building's site is bounded on the southwest by Luckie Street, on the northwest by Forsyth Street, on the northeast by Williams Street, and on the southeast by Peachtree Street. The public greenspace and outdoor seating of
Woodruff Park Woodruff Park, named for Robert W. Woodruff, is located in the heart of Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The park's are north of Edgewood Ave, between Peachtree Street NE and Park Place NE. The park includes a fountain, a performance pavilion, an ...
is located across Peachtree Street to the south. The building is serviced by
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Red and Gold line trains at the Peachtree Center station, as well as the Atlanta Streetcar at the Woodruff Park and Peachtree Center streetcar stops. In 2017,
Georgia's Own Credit Union Georgia's Own Credit Union is a credit union based in Atlanta, Georgia that was founded in 1940. Georgia's Own Credit Union is the 3rd largest credit union in Georgia with over 188,000 members and assets of 2.38 billion as of March 2018. They oper ...
moved its headquarters to the building.


Ownership

The building was constructed for the Equitable Life Insurance Company in 1968, with the company maintaining ownership of the building from 1968 to 1997 when it was sold to
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-based LaSalle Advisors for roughly $36 million. In 2007, it was purchased by Equastone 100 Peachtree
LLC A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...
for $57 million. Due to the late-2000s recession, the value of the building dropped by more than 25%, and the building reached a vacancy level of 50%. By April 2009, the building was in
foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mort ...
, and was to be
auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition e ...
ed in May of that year. Equastone owed $52 million to Capmark Bank, and thus was upside-down on its mortgage. On June 2, 2009 the building was put up for auction in Atlanta. The only bidder, 100 Peachtree Street Atlanta LLC, an affiliate of Capmark Bank, bought the building for $29.5 million. In late January 2010 there were reports that
Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the largest institution of hig ...
was interested in buying the building and its parking deck and in May 2011 the ''
Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'' reported that GSU was in negotiations to purchase the building to house its
J. Mack Robinson College of Business The J. Mack Robinson College of Business is the business school of Georgia State University in Atlanta. Based in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business Administration Building, it is one of Georgia State's six colleges. History Robinson College ...
. No deal was ever publicly announced. On July 6, 2011, the building was purchased by Florida-based America's Capital Partners for $19 million.


Incidents

At approximately 11:34pm on March 27, 1968, a fire broke out on the 10th floor of the unfinished Equitable Building and quickly moved upward, destroying much of the unconstructed upper floors that were only steel beams at the time. The fire apparently spread through feeding on the wooden construction material (particularly forms into which concrete flooring would be poured) and high winds. The fire was declared "tapped out" at 6:00am the next morning. According to the Atlanta Fire Department, "debris showered down on adjacent roof tops and apparatus on the street creating a severe hazard for the operating AFD crews," although no one was seriously hurt. Damage totaled $1.6 million. On March 14, 2008, the Equitable Building sustained minor damage, mainly shattered windows, when a tornado tore through downtown Atlanta. This tornado stands as the only one to have hit the downtown area since the city's founding.Tornado Kills 1, Pummels Downtown
by Tim Eberly and Paul Shea for the ''
Atlanta Journal and Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
, March 15, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2008.
Atlanta Tornado: The Aftermath: Landmarks Take a Hit
by Rhonda Cook et al. for the ''
Atlanta Journal and Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'', March 16, 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2008.


See also

* List of tallest buildings in Atlanta


References


External links


EMPORIS Listing
{{Atlanta landmarks Office buildings in Atlanta Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings Office buildings completed in 1968