Atlanta's condo market may be slowing down but that doesn't stop people from building and planning. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiles Taz Anderson, a local entrepreneur who is behind a new luxury residential tower in Vinings. Anderson and his son Geoff, president of Taz Anderson Realty Co., are working on a condo project called The Aberdeen, an upscale residential development in Vinings with 55 units, some up to 4,000 square feet.

The 12-story tower will have views of downtown Atlanta and Buckhead. The project takes its Scottish name seriously and the units all have names of Scottish origin. A penthouse is listed at $2.9 million. Eleven buyers have reportedly signed contracts thus far. A healthy number but a little shy of what is generally considered enough sales to build. Given the precarious state of several other Atlanta projects it seems to be a bit of a dice roll.

It's a bad week for Donald Trump, a Scottish council has rejected a plan from the Trumpster to build a $1 billion golf course and resort complex in idyllic seaside area north of Aberdeen. Trump's losing out to the birds, rare birds which make their home in the sandy dunes of the coastal area. Opponents of the development said that the development would damage the habitat of the Lapwings, Redshanks and Skylarks. Proponents of the plans said that the new development would be a big boost to the local economy. The Aberdeenshire Council's Infrastructure Committee battled for hours over Trump's plans before finally rejecting them. This news was particularly shocking to Trump since the council's Formartine area committee approved the golf course in a 7-4 vote last week. This latest vote (pardon the pun) trumps the first one. It is not known yet whether Trump will appeal the vote or if he will simply move on to create his golfing dream in another European country. The project was to have two 18-hole courses, a 450-bedroom hotel, 950 vacation homes, 36 golf villas and 500 larger homes.

We recently learned that Donald Trump is creating a new golf resort in Scotland. Now The Scotsman announces that Trump is planning to visit Scotland at the end of the month. Trump has made much of his Scottish heritage so it had been hoped that Trump would visit Lewis, his mother's ancestral home. But Trump's brief visit (he arrives on Friday, April 28 and leaves Sunday evening) allows no time for detours. His distant cousins in the village of Tong were hoping for a visit with Trump. Trump's ambitious golf development is expected to bring jobs and tourism to the area once it opens in 2008 but there is a fly in the ointment in the shape of a proposed offshore wind farm. The farm could wreck those gorgeous ocean views from the course. Perhaps Trump is heading over for a little personal persuasion.

Although some Trump ventures are a bit out of left field, the man does make decent golf courses. Now Trump is taking his links magic to Scotland. He is set to build a new resort near Aberdeen that will have two golf courses and a hotel. The land looks pretty bleak in its current state.  And who knew Trump was Scottish? Apparently his mother is Mary McLeod from Stornaway and Trump's new TrumpGolfScotland website has the details on his Scottish lineage. The course should be ready in a couple of years.

[via Scotland Today]