Skyline Views

DJ Frank Ski Puts His Buckhead Restaurant on the Market

UPDATE from Rodney Ho of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Frank Ski's Restaurant & Lounge is for sale at $395,000 in cash for the assets inside the building and the rights to a long-term lease for $18,000 a month. 

Rodney also, in a classy media move, credited Eli Zandman of Tomorrow's News Today with breaking the news. In this case, Eli did in fact have tomorrow's news a day early.

ATLANTA (Feb. 26, 2015) - Uber -DJ Frank Ski's restaurant on Peachtree Road in Buckhead, which recently only operated as a club at night, is on the market.

The freestanding 8,000-square-foot restaurant basically on top of the BeltLine is available for a mere $395,000 -or for lease at a "blow-out" below-market rent of $18,000, according to The Shumacher Group, which has the listing. Rodney Ho of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the story about the marketing of Frank Ski's, which opened in September 2011.

The sale of Frank Ski's Restaurant and Lounge likely will be followed by the sale of the entire Bennett Street development (stay tuned).

The owner recently placed large pieces of beige packing paper to block most of the view into the restaurant.

Here's how Shumacher's Steven Josovitz described the property, which has housed several concepts, including Mick's and Thirsty Dog Tavern.

This is a sale of a well known , well established full service restaurant in the heart of  Buckhead. This super hot Buckhead location is surrounded by Midtown,Downtown and the Perimeter marketplace affording an amazing middle to hi income, hi density residences, tons of retail, restaurants, office hi rises, hotels, convention centers stadiums, concert halls, etc and two regional malls Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza.

Space is approximately 8,000/sf with seating for 400 in an amazing build out that was recently renovated at over $1,000,000 creating a stunning and state of the art facility.

In addition to indoor seating of 400 space has 30-seat bar, 2-private dining rooms accommodating ten guests and one seating 75-guests and a special wine cellar dining room.

Outdoor seating is set up for 120 but can easily accommodate 400 in a special events set-up. Owners spent $200,000 on outdoor venue alone.

- Tony Wilbert, The Wilbert Group, 404-405-3656

Frank Ski Opens Buckhead Restaurant Sept. 19

By Tony Wilbert, Wilbert News Strategies

ATLANTA (Sept. 12, 2011) - Atlanta mega-DJ and philanthropist Frank Ski will open his south Buckhead restaurant next week. The restaurant will fill a large vacant commercial space at Peachtree Road and Bennett Street near a potential hub of the Atlanta BeltLine and the Shepherd Center.

Frank Ski's Restaurant & Lounge officially opens Sept. 19 at 2110 Peachtree Road in south Buckhead, the restaurant's general manager tells Skyline Views. This morning GM James Johnson oversaw training of new employees and said the 300-seat restaurant nearly is ready to go.

Skyline Views snapped this photo of the property with its new signs this morning. By lunch time, the sign at the entrance and on the marquee on Peachtree were gone. We're guessing they were erected temporarily so workers would be able to find it. The new restaurant is close to Houston's and Justin's, which likely will compete with Ski's for business.

The opening of the 8,000-square-foot restaurant is good news for fans of Frank Ski, host of the Frank and Wanda Morning Show on V-103 - The People's Station. It's also good news for Buckhead residents who want something in the spot. The restaurant location has struggled since Mick's closed after about 20 years in the space.

The latest venture to fail was Thirsty Dog Tavern, which closed early this year. It was a huge restaurant that rarely filled up. Before the Dog tried, Italian restaurant Vita survived for a while.

Steve Josovitz of The Shumacher Group brokered the deal.

Real Estate Journos Show: Eat, Drink & Be NAREE

By Tony Wilbert, Wilbert News Strategies

SAN ANTONIO - (June 20, 2011) - Record-setting heat, kick-ass real estate stories, speed dating, quick tweeting and a six-sided transaction in Ski Country created a buzz last week at the annual NAREE Spring Journalism Conference. Oh, yeah, and the host hotel next to the Alamo was haunted - allegedly.

The conference, put on by the 81-year-old National Association of Real Estate Editors, attracted a good mix of mainstream media powerhouses and online media startups and bloggers. The strong turnout by reporters from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, Smart Money and freelancers who write for other national publications helped attract lots of PR people (in a good way).

 NAREE knows its crowd and did a good job making sure each day ended with camaraderie, cold beers and some breaking local news. 

Given that NAREE 2010 took place in Austin, I'm not sure why the NAREE board selected San Antonio as the location. Maybe the board thought four consecutive days of 100-degree-plus temperatures would remind participants that real estate could be hot again (one day).

That said San Antonio did not disappoint. Most panels were more than informative, and some even were entertaining. SDS Real Estate's Steven Shane's stories about a six-sided, multimillion dollar, multinational transaction captivated the crowd, and a Texas A&M professor's colorful comparisons and language cracked up the crowd. Here's a list of bests and not-so-goods from the 45th annual conference.

Best Event: NAREE Awards. NAREE kept things moving while handing out awards in 25 categories. The Riverwalk restaurant where it took place was cool, the beer cold and margaritas frozen.

Best Move: One NAREE attendee asked to switch hotel rooms because of the perception the room at the historic Menger Hotel was haunted. The hotel, which opened two years before the Civil War started, proved an adequate home base, and no ghost sighthings were reported. (However, "room service" delivered a meal at 3:30 a.m. Saturday to no one in particular.)

Best Venue: Pearl Brewery Reception area. This event space provided just-right A/C on a blistering day. The haunted Menger, on the other hand, had warm common areas and freezing ballrooms. Only thing missing from the Pearl venue was...

Biggest Disappointment: Discovering no beer is brewed at Pearl Brewery, despite the huge Pearl beer can out front. Still, the property was pretty cool, and they offered an alternative selection of beer and wine. 

Best Awards Response: Kris Hudson. The WSJ's retail and hospitality reporter ran through the crowd high-fiving attendees as he accepted one of several awards won by his paper's real estate team.

Best Tweet: Texas A&M's refreshing take: national indices don't mean crap to a local buyer. #NAREE. This one comes from Smart Money's Alyssa Abkowitz, who won two awards, including The Ruth Ryon Best Entry by a Young Journalist.

Conference MVP Award: Conference Chairman Ralph Bivins of Realty News Report and NAREE Executive Director Mary Doyle-Kimball put in numerous houts to ensure members got what they came for.

Conspicuous No-Show (Not in a Bad Way): Some big winners sent no one pick up their awards. People who made the effort to enter and won should have been there. However, this left more Dos Equis for everyone else.

Conspicuous Interloper: Self-proclaimed Menger Hotel resident who hung out around in his bathing suit and wished everyone "Happy Father's Day" or "Happy Mother's Day." He even greeted NAREE convention-goers as they departed at 5 a.m. Saturday. Nevertheless, he was harmless.

Best Impromptu Speech: Shannon Behnken, real estate reporter Tampa Bay Tribune and News Channel 8. NAREE officer and Sarasota Herald-Tribune real estate editor Harold Bubil put Behnken on the spot in the Menger's Presidential Suite by asking her to discuss her stories that earned her the Best Overall Entry by an Individual. She performed admirably. 

Best Overall Part: Meet the Press. In this event, loosely based on speed dating, PR people get three minutes to pitch their stories, clients and selves to journalists they've been dying to meet. The time went by way too fast, but we PR people can talk quickly. 

Best Decision: Moving the conference out of Texas for 2012. While everyone loves Texas, it was hotter than hell. Next year's show in Denver will be cooler, in several ways.