How short-term rental investors took over a historic Atlanta high-rise
At first, George Weidman tried to ignore the piercing fire alarm in the hallway outside his one-bedroom condo in the Landmark high-rise in downtown Atlanta.
It was the evening of Jan. 17, 2024. In recent weeks, short-term rental guests, who now outnumbered full-time residents, had been running up and down hallways outside his home on the seventh floor, setting off alarms.
Weidman put this latest interruption down to yet another annoying prank, distracting himself with a video game on his PC called “Hunt: Showdown.”
“I didn’t take it seriously until I started actually smelling the smoke,” said the YouTuber and video game journalist, who said he had become almost numb to the loud fights in neighboring condos, parties in the early hours of the morning and construction sounds as short-term rental investors remodeled their units.
Weidman tucked his dog, Eddie, a Jack Russell mix, under his arm and left his condo. After firefighters ushered him down the stairwell, he was soon outside, shivering in the cold as temperatures dropped to 13 degrees and a fire raged in a first-floor office — a commercial space operated by short-term rental investor and HOA board president Yali Lu.
After firefighters put out the blaze, Weidman had time to reflect on how much things had changed since Lu and other short-term rental investors swamped the 21-story tower, took over the building’s homeowners association board, and transformed the Landmark into something he said is more akin to a budget hotel.
The fire was just one more chapter in a long-running ordeal.
During Lu’s tenure, Weidman and other residents allege the board has mismanaged and neglected the building so they no longer feel safe in their own homes. They say it has tried to push them out by hiking HOA fees by more than 50%, or by threatening them with foreclosure or costly lawsuits.
What’s more, the Landmark has become a symbol of city inertia as lawmakers struggle to adopt working regulations for apps like Airbnb and Vrbo and address concerns about party houses, crime and longtime residents who have been priced out of their communities.
Tired of waiting for legislation, Weidman launched a GoFundMe campaign last year and hired attorney David Dreyer, a former Democratic member of the Georgia House of Representatives, to represent several of the resident homeowners.
Lu and board member Jamey Waters strongly denied the residents’ allegations and said the problems at the building are because of years of deferred maintenance and predated the current board and investors.
“The HOA board is saddened by all of the negativity the Landmark has received in the media and City Council when we are all just a group of volunteers who are trying to improve the building and make it a pleasant and safe place,” Waters wrote in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The foundation
Built in the early 1960s, the Landmark Condominium on Piedmont Avenue towers over the city’s main traffic artery, the Downtown Connector.
About 50 LLCs, trusts or companies own more than 90 of the 200 units in the residential building, according to the AJC’s analysis of Fulton County property records.
Lu and her sister, Rachel Lu, run the short-term rental business LuLu Homes through an entity called FHS Partners. They are registered agents for six LLCs and own more than 20 units in the building, according to county and state records.
The LuLu Homes website suggests they own many more. There are listings for more than 50 units in the building, priced between $65, $190 and $1,000 per night. Yali Lu did not respond to questions about whether she resides in the building, nor confirm how many units she owns.
Four of the five board members have short-term rental businesses in the building, according to a review of Georgia business records — including Lu, Waters, treasurer Ken Kraften and Fei Wang. The fifth member, Adam Liu, serves on the board as a nonresident owner.
The once-tranquil condo community has been in sharp decline since absentee investors took over, according to multiple full-time residents, who said the building management and board now serve the interests of short-term rental hosts.
They told the AJC there have been problems with pests, water leaks, broken elevators, lax security and hosts taking over common areas. Weekends, they say, bring partiers with loud music and fights. The smell of marijuana is sometimes overpowering.
“I don’t feel safe with Airbnb people in the building because you don’t know who’s coming in, who’s going out, or anything,” resident Zeda Stanley Sartor said.
The city’s elected leaders have tried to find a solution — so far without success.
When the Atlanta City Council passed a short-term rental ordinance in March 2021, it included licensing requirements and a provision permitting owners to use only their primary residence as a short-term rental, with one additional dwelling unit.
There was just one problem: It couldn’t be enforced.
“The legal department in the city of Atlanta determined that the ordinance was legally indefensible,” said Kathie McClure, vice president of the industry lobbying group Atlanta Metro Short-Term Rental Alliance.
That has left short-term rental investors and residents at the Landmark in limbo. Records obtained by the AJC from the city showed that, as of July 2025, only two short-term rental licenses had been issued at the building (both to Waters), with most denied and some expired or incomplete.
Landmark management said it does not track or maintain those records.
Since the fire in early 2024, tensions between residents and the HOA board have only increased.
“Had the fire department not been across the street, we would not have made it out of the building in time. We would have died,” said homeowner Nicky Buggs, who sometimes uses the alias Nicky Cruz.
Private forensic engineering and environmental consulting firm EFI Global’s March 2024 report found widespread smoke and soot contamination throughout the high-rise, including in residential units on upper floors and contamination in HVAC, venting and plumbing. It recommended a deep cleaning of the building.
Weidman said common areas in the building and his home still haven’t been repaired or cleaned, and he avoids turning on his HVAC unit because he worries about breathing contaminated air.
The Landmark HOA filed an insurance claim for more than $15 million. But in January 2025, its insurer, Admiral Indemnity Co., sued the Landmark in Atlanta federal court seeking to void its $63,000-a-year policy, alleging misrepresentation and fraud.
According to allegations in the lawsuit, property manager Alexandra Betancur and Yali Lu signed an application stating the entire property had sprinklers when, in reality, they were only in a “small portion” of the basement — about 5% of the property. Lu did not mention that commercial businesses operate in the building, the insurer claimed.
Because Admiral has refused to renew the Landmark’s policy, it was facing a premium of about $567,000 for property coverage, court records state.
Lu declined to comment on the litigation.
Kraften, the treasurer, outlined the building’s precarious financial position at a meeting held over Zoom in October 2024, according to a recording shared with the AJC.
He left most residents on mute and dismissed their questions as he told them the board would have to increase HOA fees and bill residents for water just to balance its budget.
If not, a court-appointed receiver could take control of the building, he said.
“The Landmark can’t handle one more lawsuit. The Landmark can’t handle one more fire. We can’t handle one more catastrophic event,” Kraften said.
A copy of the Landmark’s 2025 final approved budget obtained by the AJC confirmed the building’s finances were on a knife edge and that, after taxes, it would just about break even.
Insurance of $620,000 swallowed up more than 30% of the entire budget. Concierge services came in at $225,000, or more than 10%, according to the document.
The building budgeted for $1.87 million in homeowner fees. Based on 200 units, that would come to about $9,373 a year per unit.
The match
In the past year, residents’ allegations filtered through local media and to city and state officials, becoming a cautionary tale of what happens without enforceable short-term rental regulations.
A March 2025 report by WSB-TV featuring Weidman, Buggs and Stanley Sartor recounted claims the building had turned into a “dangerous party house” and “hotel hell.”
After the story, the Lu sisters, Kraften, Betancur and then-concierge Valerie Lamb attended a public hearing on short-term rental legislation at City Hall.
During the public comment portion, Betancur said there was a 12% delinquency rate at the Landmark and investors had bailed the building out with a $65,000 interest-free loan after the fire.
“We had 16 units with no power for more than 10 months. We have elderly residents living in the dark with no heat and unsafe conditions,” the property manager said.
Although Yali Lu sat quietly in the back of the room and allowed others to speak on the Landmark’s behalf, comments from Betancur and Lamb drew a strong rebuke from District 5 Council member Liliana Bakhtiari.
The Landmark is in Bakhtiari’s district, and the council member said investors had steadily forced people out, estimating fewer than 15 full-time residents remain, and security had “horrifically fallen short.”
Entire levels were “party floors,” with video showing people throwing chairs out of their windows into the swimming pool, the council member added.
“I do appreciate you coming up here and trying to paint this picture, but any issue with not keeping the lights on falls solely on your shoulders and the investors,” Bakhtiari said.
The official singled Lu out during the hearing and told her: “I’m very aware of who you are. I’m very aware of what you’ve done, and I’ll be looking into your operations along with the state.”
“I do ask that you stop, because you are not a good example for Airbnb, and, in fact, you are the exact opposite,” Bakhtiari told Betancur.
Bakhtiari visited the building within six months of taking office in 2022, and said in an interview after the hearing it was “the perfect example why regulations have to exist.”
“Nowhere else in the city is it this bad,” the council member said. “This location, by far, sets the standard for the worst party situation I have seen in my district.”
All the same, 2025 came and went without City Council passing new citywide legislation, and Buggs, Weidman and other Landmark residents are demanding more from city and state officials.
“Impose some reasonable regulations on Airbnb or short-term rental businesses that other cities in America have,” Weidman said.
It might not be so simple. Both a federal appeals court ruling in Louisiana and a high court ruling in Georgia have made it harder for cities to regulate existing short-term rentals, McClure argued.
“The Landmark situation is not something that is going to be regulated away,” McClure said. “It needs to be resolved by the board and the individuals who feel like they’re being wronged.”
The new citywide legislation proposes capping short-term rentals in multifamily buildings with 10 or more units at 10%. Last July, Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond carved out the cap in a separate amendment.
It stalled amid lingering concerns about whether it is enforceable.
“I did that because residents of the Landmark repeatedly have come down and literally have begged us for some action and for help,” Bond said.
Cease and desist
As residents raised awareness of issues in the building, the board turned the screw on what it called, in an April 2025 community email, a “small group of homeowners” and their “organized attempt to tarnish our building’s reputation.”
In May 2025, Weidman opened his mailbox to find a letter from the Landmark board’s lawyer, Michael Dever. It was a cease-and-desist letter claiming “terroristic threats” had been made against Landmark employees, and Weldman had told Betancur “she should kill herself.”
Dreyer, Weidman’s attorney, said he had seen nothing to back up the claims in the letter and it was “penned to get George to be silent and stop speaking up about injustices.”
Council member Bond said the board was trying to silence its critics and “harass these citizens for exercising their constitutional rights.”
But Lu defended the HOA board’s actions and said it was its “fiduciary duty to stop the lies.”
And there has been even more litigation.
On Aug. 4, 2025, when Buggs was at City Hall to speak at a council meeting, she was served with a defamation lawsuit filed by the HOA and Betancur — a suit Buggs called “frivolous.”
According to the defamation complaint, Buggs falsely claimed in a community email and at a public hearing that the board of directors and the property manager engaged in price-fixing, antitrust violations, financial mismanagement and fraud.
Attorney and HOA expert George Nowack represented the Landmark board for at least 20 years until February 2018. He said the HOA’s willingness to allow short-term rentals paved the way for LLCs to take over. Many HOAs in Georgia have banned short-term rentals outright.
Under Georgia law, amendments to a condominium building’s leasing terms usually require approval from unit owners holding two-thirds of the votes in the association, including minimum lease terms or bans on short-term rentals, Nowack said.
“I don’t know the numbers at the Landmark, but my gut feeling is they would never come close to getting two-thirds of the members to vote to prohibit short-term leasing rentals. They just don’t have the votes,” he said.
Meanwhile, residents said they are feeling powerless, exhausted and scared.
“It’s the fear … the paranoia, the emotional distress, the damage I’m taking to my mental health from not feeling safe here,” said Weidman. “I think it is a sign that we are living in times where greed is going unchecked and laws are unenforced.”
“Honestly, we’re tired and we’re broke,” said former resident Jana Wall, who decided to move out of the Landmark and sell her home last year, even though its market value had sharply declined.
Airbnb launched an internal investigation into whether hosts at the Landmark were complying with the company’s community policies. Company officials said in October they had removed some host accounts in the building from its platform, though they declined to identify them. Vrbo did not respond to a request for comment.
Betancur wrote in an email Thursday that management had since installed security cameras on every level of the Landmark and remodeled four hallways. Management remained committed to “creating a better living environment for everyone in the community,” she wrote.
Dreyer told the AJC residents want an independent forensic audit of the HOA board’s finances.
“If for any reason that forensic audit gets derailed or does not appear to be independent, then I think we’ll have no choice but to file a lawsuit,” Dreyer said, adding he had taken on the case because condominiums are often “the last line of affordable housing in metro Atlanta.”
Weidman launched his GoFundMe campaign after the cease-and-desist letter. By March, he had raised more than $83,000 of his $90,000 goal, by leaning on the 435,000 subscribers to his gaming YouTube channel, Super Bunnyhop.
“Police reports have been filed, lawyers have been contacted, and I am already well in the habit of documenting everything,” Weidman said in a video on GoFundMe. “The exact logic behind why in the world they thought this would be a good idea will be a better question answered in court.
“I believe all of this will reflect extremely poorly on the entire short-term rental industry and give the rest of us the chance to finally solve this problem once and for all.”
About the Author
Matt Reynolds is a housing reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's local government team.
