The 18-story glass tower at 1800 Century Blvd. in Chamblee was supposed to get a second life as apartments. Instead, crews are prepping it for a controlled implosion scheduled for 7:45 a.m. on October 24, after the building sat vacant since the Georgia Department of Revenue moved out in 2024.
The tower was once the centerpiece of an ambitious $91 million redevelopment plan that would have turned the office building into 289 apartment units, with the Decide DeKalb Development Authority approving a $6 million property tax break in December 2024 to help make it happen, according to The Real Deal. Developers Highwoods Properties and Brand Properties had planned to finance the conversion through a $59 million construction loan and $32 million in equity investments. That plan has since been scrapped in favor of demolition, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Highwoods Properties Chief Operating Officer Brian Leary explained that high interest rates made office-to-residential retrofits exceptionally difficult, pushing demolition and a reimagined site toward becoming the more viable path, per the Atlanta Business Chronicle's reporting on the project. The Georgia Department of Revenue, which once occupied the tower, moved its headquarters out in 2024.
What Comes After the Dust Settles
City of Chamblee demolition permit filings indicate that once the tower comes down, the immediate plan for its footprint is to convert the site into a stormwater detention pond, the business journal reports. Before any of that can happen, environmental crews completed full asbestos abatement across the 18-story tower in preparation for the controlled explosion, removing windows and gutting the interior along the way.
Atlas Demolition is handling the preparation work and has said the implosion itself will produce a loud sound and a large dust cloud. Roads near the site will be temporarily closed that morning, and nearby businesses have been notified ahead of time, since the implosion site sits within 750 feet of nearby homes and businesses. Lindsay Minton said the dust cloud should be the main concern for nearby residents rather than the blast itself.
A Landmark Built in a Different Era
The 18-story glass-encased tower encompasses roughly 290,000 square feet. The site is near major transportation routes. The Real Deal cited nearby medical investment, including Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Arthur M. Blank Hospital and Emory University's medical campus, as part of the site's appeal.
Highwoods has also been shedding other assets in the surrounding Century Center office park. The company sold the neighboring 2595 Century Parkway building — where the Department of Revenue relocated — in July 2026 for $16.2 million to an entity linked to Boyd Watterson Asset Management, per the Atlanta Business Chronicle's reporting.
A Conversion Plan Scrapped
The proposed conversion of 1800 Century Blvd. to apartments has been abandoned, and the site is now slated for demolition.
Century Center itself is already shifting away from office use elsewhere in the park. Apartments targeted Chamblee offices back in March 2026, when developer Alliance Residential submitted plans for Broadstone Century Center, proposing to tear down neighboring single-story office buildings in the same park to build hundreds of new apartments. The plan would replace aging office buildings with new housing rather than retrofit them.
