Did you feel that bang? Early morning implosion razes Chamblee office tower.

Office tower, begone!

Thanks to a demolition crew’s early Saturday morning implosion, an 18-story office tower that has hung over Clairmont Road in Chamblee for about five decades has been reduced to rubble.

A loud bang resounded as the explosives detonated, and a crowd of tightly bundled spectators cheered as the building sank and dust wafted upward.

The implosion was conducted by Cartersville-based Atlas Demolition, whose crews have handled years of demo projects by other means. It drew a sizable crowd, with Atlas setting aside bleachers for viewing purposes. Spectators were told sternly not to approach the blast zone or interfere with any of the safety measures.

“We’re not in the show business,” Ron Gilbert, the vice president of blasting operations for explosives company DetX, told the crowd. “We’re in the keeping-people-safe business.”

The debris from the building will be contained under dust drop cloths as the demolition company tears down the aftermath. The removal process will take about nine weeks.

The Georgia Department of Revenue occupied the tower for much of the 2000s. After the state agency relocated in 2024, the building has remained vacant. Highwoods Properties owned the building until July, when it was sold for $16.2 million to a subsidiary of Boyd Watterson Asset Management.

What will replace it is anyone’s guess. Project plans haven’t been released for a future use of the site. One thing is certain: it’s a valuable piece of property. The 2.2-acre site at 1800 Century Blvd. was most recently appraised at nearly $28.8 million.

For now, the building footprint will be converted into a detention pond, at least temporarily, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.

The site was once the target of a residential conversion project, with real estate developers Highwoods Properties and Brand Properties partnering to pursue a plan to convert it into 289 apartment units. The Decide DeKalb development authority approved a $6 million property tax break in December 2024 to support the project, which would have a budget of about $91 million, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.

But the project never moved forward, making it the latest example of potential office-to-residential conversion that was abandoned or encountered delays despite the post-pandemic focus on retrofitting unwanted offices as housing.

Cindy Krautheim, 81, visited from Vermont to see the implosion. Her son Kyle Tripp is a partner in Atlas, and he flew her down to see it.