With the condo market in the tank all over metro Atlanta, you have to wonder who'd start a luxury residential tower in Vinings.

Figure Taz Anderson is in there somewhere. The Atlanta entrepreneur has been involved in harebrained business deals for more than a decade.

Andy Sharp/asharp@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Developer Taz Anderson (left) and his son Geoff, president of Taz Anderson Realty Co., are working on a condo project called The Aberdeen. The upscale residential development in Vinings, which will have 55 units, is a show of faith considering the current market.

Taz Anderson Realty Co. (ENLARGE)

The Aberdeen, which will give residents a view of downtown Atlanta and Buckhead, will have homes up to 4,000 square feet. The asking price for a penthouse is $2.9 million.

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They're all his — billboards shaped like peaches; a tall torch next to the Downtown Connector near the Varsity; hand-held TV sets for fans at NASCAR races that let them see what drivers see.

The thing is, they've made a small fortune for the Georgia Tech football star who in the 1960s went on to play pro ball in St. Louis and Atlanta.

"Just because people don't see your idea the way you do doesn't mean your deal's not any good," Anderson said.

Now Anderson's gambling on a 12-story condo tower with 55 units in Vinings. The asking price today for a penthouse is $2.9 million.

Eleven buyers have signed hard contracts worth in excess of $20 million, according to Anderson's son, Geoff Anderson, president of the family real estate company. Construction financing includes a $56 million loan that was placed with an unidentified U.S. pension fund by First Fidelity Co., according to First Fidelity. Terms and conditions weren't disclosed.

Taz Anderson's not fazed by the credit crunch that affects so many people who want to buy a home. He figures there are plenty of people like him — older and financially set — who are ready to unload the responsibility of a big home and move to a big condo. The Aberdeen has homes up to 4,000 square feet, even without merging two or more units.

"People have money," Anderson said.

"A lot of people of my age are in a stage in their lives where they have a second home, or they travel, and don't want to worry about the yard," he said. "What they are is security-conscious. And they want to replace the quality of finish they have in their homes."

The Aberdeen also has that crucial ingredient in real estate: location.

The tower is in Vinings, which is in one of the hottest ZIP codes for home sales, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's recent Home Sales Report.

Newcomers such as Beverly Duke said Vinings offers a good balance of urban and suburban lifestyles. Duke bought a condo in One Vinings Mountain to be near her children in Atlanta when she's not at her house near Chicago.

"This is the ideal location," Duke said of Vinings. "It's not in the city, but it's close enough to have the benefits of the city. I can be on the Georgia Tech campus in 10 minutes and at the airport in 25 to 30 minutes."

Anderson has a history of running against market trends. He said he doesn't always win.

Back in the 1980s, he said, he bought land in Gwinnett County that looked like a winner. He could have made a fortune — if only Gwinnett Place mall had been built closer to his land than on its site, about a mile to the west.

But there was that Buckhead deal in the mid-1980s.

That was an era before Buckhead was the economic powerhouse it is today. Anderson said he began assembling nearly 20 acres near the intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont roads. The deal started teetering when he couldn't get a lender to back him. Everyone in town knew Anderson was paying too much for the dirt, he said.

"We went to every bank in Atlanta, and they wouldn't make us a loan on that property at $15 a square foot," Anderson said. "Bank of Boston did the deal because they had the perspective. We sold at $60 a foot. It was an incredible deal."

Now 69, Anderson still has the public charisma and broad grin of a successful retired ballplayer. Think of an older version of Howie Long, the pro football Hall of Famer and Fox Sports personality.

Anderson said his business strategy is simple.

"You analyze the best you can and think it through and try to make sure you have the bases covered," Anderson said. "Then you go forward. If you have faith in what you're doing, you just give it your best shot."

TAZ ANDERSON TIDBITS

• Founder and chairman, Taz Anderson Realty Co.
• About that torch near the Varsity: It's staying, until the next deal comes along. Anderson built it because he wasn't impressed with Atlanta's Olympic torch, near Turner Field. "We thought theirs was a bad idea, so we built our own. We had a ceremony and invited all our friends to come to the lighting of the flame."
• And those peach-shaped billboards near the Downtown Connector: They're staying. "We wanted to do something where people would say, 'What's that?' and look at the advertising."
• Born: In Savannah in 1938 and helped his father with hydroplane speedboats.
• Georgia Tech football: Inducted into school's Athletic Hall of Fame, 1982; All-SEC Team, 1959
• Pro football: St. Louis Cardinals, 1961-64; Atlanta Falcons, 1966-67.
• Business philosophy: "If you believe what you're doing has a sound basis, you go."