At long last, John Williams can get Post Properties out of his system.

Williams, founder of Post Properties, was forced out of the apartment-development firm in 2002. The next year, he was unsuccessful in a proxy fight against the current management.

On a personal and professional basis, the loss of Post Properties kept eating away at Williams. He came close on two occasions in the last year to buying back Post Properties. He dreamed of a day when he would be able to take over his former company.

But as of last week, all that changed.

"I was not able to walk away until I realized Post was such a radically different company from the one I founded and ran for 30 years," Williams said Thursday in a telephone interview. "I now have inner peace. I don't need to go back and own or manage Post Properties."

Post Properties put the company up for sale earlier this year, but after five months of trying to find a buyer, the company announced Wednesday that it had not received a definitive proposal from any of the potential bidders. Post CEO David Stockert said in a release that "conditions in the economy and the financial markets combined to produce a difficult transaction environment."

That was not the case a year ago when, Williams said, he submitted a letter to the board expressing his interest to buy Post Properties for between $56 and $59 a share.

"I made a very legitimate offer a year ago," Williams said. "The truth is that they should have negotiated with me. We didn't even get a reply to our letter."

Had Post entertained Williams' offer last summer, it would have been at the height of its market value. Post Properties closed Friday at $29.44 a share.

"In retrospect, I probably would have made a bad decision," Williams said. "It's just unfortunate. They had an opportunity, and they let it slip through their fingers. Was this to try to stick it in John Williams' eye?"

Six months later, Williams made another offer, this time for between $44 and $47 a share. But that offer was contingent on Williams doing his due diligence on the company.

Williams didn't like what he saw.

"I just turned 65 in March," Williams said. "After looking at it and getting my head under the tent, I saw that all the king's horses and all the king's men wouldn't be able to put it back together again. I frankly didn't think I had the skill set or energy to go back in and run the company like it was when I was at the helm."

For the first time since he left Post in 2002, Williams said he was able to step back and see Post strictly from a business perspective.

"It's been a very cathartic experience," Williams said. "It's not the same company I founded. It's not the same company I successfully ran for 30 years. It's not the same company that had continuous record earnings. It's not the same company that won innumerable awards."

Williams said he sent Stockert a "thoughtful" letter two years ago urging him not to invest heavily in the condo industry because he believed the market was softening.

"Stockert sent me back a letter saying that they knew what they were doing," Williams said.

"Their biggest bugaboo was getting into the condo business," he said.

Analysts have tended to agree with that assessment on Post.

The company has said it will not comment beyond its announcement, and declined Friday to comment for this column.

In the last four years, Williams has been able to put his own business theories to work.

He has created a privately held real estate investment company that includes apartments, retail and office.

"We have 47 active real estate transactions totaling $3 billion," Williams said. "I have 40 partners and 19 companies, and I'm at peace with where I am and where I plan on going. The truth is that Williams Realty Advisors is probably more like the old Post I knew than the way Post is today."

Williams said he still has "concern and compassion" for Post's shareholders (of which he is one) and long-time employees. "I think they're in for a rough period," Williams said.

Already, a Chicago-based hedge fund is launching a proxy battle against Post's current management and has presented an alternate slate of directors.

Intellectually, Williams has been able to put Post behind him for purely business reasons.

It has been harder to get over the personal hurt. "Rather than people I considered my friends and cohorts standing beside me, they all stuck knives in my back even though I had been very good to them," Williams said. "They effectively kicked me out of the company I founded. It was indeed like a child being taken away from me."

But instead of getting all riled up, Williams reflected on this latest twist in his relationship with Post.

"Frankly, I'm over it," Williams said. "I can put it all behind me, which will be a relief to a lot of friends and to my family."

msaporta@ajc.com