Atlanta's Bank of America Plaza to be sold at foreclosure auction | Business

ATLANTA (WXIA) -- The Bank of America Plaza, the tallest and most identifiable building in the Southeast, goes on the auction block on Tuesday.

The building is in foreclosure and will be sold on the steps of the Fulton County Courthouse.

No matter how you look at it, the 55-story Bank of America Plaza building is a first-rate address in Atlanta for many top law firms and corporations.

The building's owners, who purchased the building from Bank of America and Cousins Properties in 2006 for $436 million -- when the real estate market was at its peak -- have now fallen victim to the real estate bust.

The owners watched as Atlanta was hit hard by over-building, lots of empty office space and inflated prices.

The building could fetch less than half of what it was worth five years ago.

Commercial real estate broker Kirk Diamond says what's happening is not unusual in this market, but it's a winner for existing tenants and new ones coming along.

"If any of the services that have been scaled back, they should be returned to their normal operating levels," said Diamond. "And absolutely very good deals for new tenants."

In the current real estate market, the towering building could end up as a good deal when it is sold on the courthouse steps Tuesday.