A hotel on Buckhead’s Lenox Road has been declared in default on a nearly $46.6 million mortgage loan balance and a sale on the courthouse steps is scheduled for Oct. 5.
The default on the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center at 3405 Lenox Road, across the street from Lenox Square mall, was described in a Sept. 8 legal notice in the Fulton County Daily Report, the county’s legal organ. (The hotel is not to be confused with the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead hotel just down the street at the corner of Lenox and East Paces Ferry Road.)
The hotel was the subject of a $50.5 million mortgage loan in 2016 on a 10-year term, according to the legal notice and real estate records. Since then, $3,944,777 of principle has been paid, leaving a balance of $46,555,223, according to real estate records. According to the legal notice, the owner failed to make monthly payments starting in November 2020 “and thereafter,” triggering the default and demand to pay the entire amount.
The owner and borrower is PHF II Buckhead LLC, a Delaware-based company connected with Atrium Holding Company in Arizona. The holding company is an affiliate of Alpharetta-based Atrium Hospitality, which owns and operates hotels under several brands, including Marriott, and which lists the Lenox Road hotel on its website as part of its portfolio. Atrium and the hotel chain Marriott International did not respond to comment requests.
The current loan-holder is LNR Partners LLC of Florida via a trust and another LLC, according to the legal notice. Edwin Garrison, an Atlanta attorney representing the loan-holder, declined to comment.
Other legal notices published last month referenced a cash sale on the courthouse steps for Sept. 7. There is no explanation of why that didn’t happen and the new date announced. According to the legal notice, Marriott and PHF II Buckhead LLC have a right of first refusal on a sale.
In March 2020, the hotel furloughed 145 employees, according to an Atlanta Business Chronicle report. The hotel building dates to 1975, according to county property records, and has gone through several ownership changes and rebrandings over the decades.
