Auction of Equitable building delayed a month

A foreclosure auction for downtown Atlanta’s Equitable building, originally set for Tuesday, has been put off for at least a month.

The reason for the delay was not clear Monday. A spokeswoman for the lender, Capmark Bank, said in an e-mail that the foreclosure has been rescheduled for June 2, but she declined further comment.

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Kimberly Smith / ksmith@ajc.com

The Equitable Building (center) in downtown Atlanta is worth about $45 million.

• Photos: Atlanta's Equitable building

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The 33-story skyscraper, which once dominated the city’s skyline, is the highest-profile victim of Atlanta’s struggling office market.

The building sold for $56.8 million in May 2007 at the height of the commercial real estate boom. But the owners, Equastone 100 Peachtree LLC, had trouble leasing the building and could not meet its debt obligations. San Diego-based Equastone owes $52 million to its lender, Capmark Bank, a division of Horsham, Pa.-based Capmark Financial Group.

Fulton County property tax records show the building is now worth about $45 million.

The Equitable building sits across from Woodruff Park on the site of the old Piedmont Hotel, once one of the city’s most luxe hotels. The building doesn’t have a true lead anchor and is about half leased. Current tenants include the district offices of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat.