Buckhead

320 West Paces Ferry Road sold for $3.5 million

Let’s face it: Homes are still selling far below what owners are asking. Historic Buckhead properties are feeling it, too.
Look at the recent $3.5 million sale of the the Philip Shutze-designed house at 320 West Paces Ferry Road, formerly home to the Southern Center for International Studies. The original price: $4.995 million.
Agent Wendy Zoller with Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty (www.atlantafinehomes.com) faced the challenge of selling the West Paces property, known as the Goodrum House and built in 1929. She says it was difficult to compare it to other homes because of its history and interior details such as hand-painted murals.
It took Zoller six months to sell the home, which was listed prior to that with another agent.
“You wouldn’t believe the calls I’ve gotten (asking) who did you sell it to? People who care about the history of Atlanta certainly are really wanting to know what’s going to happen to it,” she says. “So many people were frightened that it was going to be torn down.”
It sold this summer to the Watson-Brown Foundation (www.watson-brown.org) for its new Atlanta headquarters. The organization did an appraisal that valued the house at $3.5 million, and it paid $100,000 for all the furniture.
So what’s in store for it? Plans are to restore the home and the garden, and open it up to the public, with Zoller saying it will become a tribute to the Shutze.