Photograph courtesy of Loews Hotel
Living in a five-star hotel is a far cry from a stint in your average extended-stay inn. While visitors to Atlanta can drop a pretty penny for high-rise lodging that comes with room service, housekeeping, and a spa, others take up full-time residence in the buildings, a la Eloise at the Plaza.
Part of the appeal, says Erik Dowdy, a real estate advisor with Engel and Völkers Atlanta, is being able to centralize so much at one address. “You can drop down to the restaurant for a meeting or dinner,” he says. “Your personal trainer meets you at your building. There’s in-home spa therapy. It’s assisted-living for people who don’t need it,” he says. While many residents use them as second homes, says Dowdy, others make hotel residences their full-time pads, from empty-nesters offloading the big houses and yards to young families who want walkability and concierge. Others are semiretired and still want a place in the city.
A current one-bedroom listing at the Loews Hotel, where the condos are dubbed 1065 Midtown, goes for $700,000, and units range up to $2 million. Owners enjoy resort amenities like a rooftop pool, gym, and housekeeping—although one can typically expect hotel residences to come with pricey HOA fees.
At Buckhead’s skyscraping Waldorf Astoria, formerly the Mandarin Oriental, a top-floor, three-bedroom unit newly upgraded by Harrison Design sold earlier this year for nearly $4 million.
This article appears in our Fall 2019 issue of Atlanta Magazine’s HOME.
