Oct. 8, 2003 - Atlanta developer John Dewberry has bought the Wyndham Midtown Atlanta hotel across from his prime acreage on the corner of Peachtree and 10th streets in the heart of Midtown.

Dewberry, a former Georgia Tech quarterback and developer of the One Peachtree Pointe building, also in Midtown, paid $21.75 million for the 191-room hotel.

"The acquisition of the Wyndham Midtown Atlanta is another key component of our vision for Midtown Square," Dewberry said. "We are committed to transforming the area into the heart of Midtown's culture and identity."

The Wyndham Midtown Atlanta sits across 10th Street from the site of Jocks & Jills Sports Grill, a plot Dewberry bought in December 1999 for $9.2 million.

The Jocks & Jills site is among the most desirable in Midtown and the key to the future development of the district, said Will Herbig, land-use and development planner with the Midtown Alliance, a business and civic group promoting the neighborhood.

Dewberry Capital Corp. plans to develop the Jocks & Jills property into Midtown Square, a 2 million-square-foot mixed-use development of offices, residences and retail shops.

The project has been on hold due to the economy, and Dewberry notified the sports bar and another tenant, Cha Gio, a Vietnamese restaurant, this summer that they could expand because the project is several years away, Herbig said.

Dewberry probably wanted to buy a well-located hotel in an up-and-coming neighborhood while the hotel market is down and the price was right, said Peter Keim, vice president of PKF Consulting, a hotel industry research group.

Hotel occupancy in Midtown through August is down 7 percent over the same period last year, he said. He described the price of $21.75 million, or about $110,000 per room, as a good investment.

Dewberry's initial plans for Midtown Square called for a luxury hotel, which would be difficult in the current economic environment, Keim said.

"I'm happy Dewberry will own it," Shelton G. Stanfill, chairman of the Midtown Alliance, said of the hotel. Stanfill is president and chief executive officer of the Woodruff Arts Center. Dewberry is a member of the Midtown Alliance's board of directors.

"He's a responsible developer and a good manager," Stanfill said.

Dallas-based Wyndham International Inc. will continue to operate the property, a company representative said. Wyndham is looking to sell off some of its properties, while keeping the hotels in its portfolio under franchise and management agreements, the representative said.

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