Saturday, September 19, 2015

Dunwoody Perimeter Gridlock Fixes

Dunwoody officials propose up to $20 million 'connector' to ease traffic, plan for rapid growth, by Douglas Sams & Amy Wenk, 9/16/15, Atlanta Business Chronical
 
Dunwoody is proposing a $20 million connector along the Atlanta Perimeter where State Farm Insurance Co. is building its 8,000-employee regional hub and where millions more square feet of office, retail and hotel development could be in the offing.
Dunwoody officials believe the proposed Westside Connector, which would come off I-285 and run beneath Ashford-Dunwoody Road, would set the stage for a true heart of the central Perimeter, a rapidly developing collection of cities including Sandy Springs.
The idea stems from two big problems facing Dunwoody — increasing traffic and rapid development.
More than 125,000 employees and commuters pour into the Perimeter during the work week, almost tripling the population of a city with almost 47,600 residents.
More broadly, Dunwoody sits at the nexus of traffic coming from the northern suburbs to Atlanta’s core and westward toward the Cumberland Galleria area. Dunwoody Mayor Mike Davis compared the city to the thinnest part of an hourglass, where traffic is funneling into an area without the infrastructure to handle it.
The idea for the new Connector comes as traffic may soon get even worse in the central Perimeter long before it improves. A planned $1.1 billion overhaul of the Interstate 285/Georgia 400 interchange is moving forward. The project includes rebuilding the interchange and improvements that will extend from the Roswell Road exit east to the Ashford-Dunwoody exit.
The Westside Connector would offer a vital east-west link, potentially taking 700 or more cars off Hammond Drive and Ashford Dunwoody Road during rush hour, said Dunwoody Public Works Director Michael Smith.
Traffic isn’t the only concern. Large residential, retail and office projects are concentrating along Hammond Drive and Perimeter Center Parkway.
“We have a lot of development coming,” Davis said. “We need more ways to connect roads.”
The biggest wave of new projects is destined for a one-mile stretch of Perimeter Center Parkway, where State Farm is building its new metro Atlanta operations center — one of the largest corporate office projects in the region’s history. The project could become a model for retrofitting multiple sites into a vibrant, integrated mixed-use development. Over time, the project may also transform the urban center of Dunwoody into something closer to the look of Buckhead or Midtown.
State Farm is developing its campus around the Dunwoody MARTA station at Hammond and Perimeter Center Parkway. The insurance giant is planning three approximately 20-story buildings, up to 90,000 square feet of street-level retail and restaurant space, and a park that could knit the entire project together.
There’s more. In coming weeks, Boston-based GID Development Group may also submit plans for 36 acres at Hammond and Perimeter Center Parkway, a project zoned for up to 3,000 residential units and 400,000 square feet of retail.
The Connector may also become a catalyst for the redevelopment of the 260,000-square-foot GoldKist building, a property potentially in the bull’s-eye for corporate relocations along Perimeter Center Parkway because it’s next to the State Farm project and the MARTA station. The entire site would also have a better chance to blend residential and street-level retail into the redevelopment.
The proposed Connector is also an important pedestrian link to the MARTA station, which city officials describe as the epicenter of growth for the entire central Perimeter. The Connector could feature about a quarter-mile link for people walking or biking to work or the transit station.
“We want to make this as pedestrian and bike-friendly as we can,” Davis said. Development is nothing new to Dunwoody.
Before it became a city in 2008, it was known for Perimeter Mall and the retail centers that popped up around it. In the mid-’80s, projects such as One Ravinia Drive helped launch office development on Ashford-Dunwoody Road. Today, development is focusing farther west. Almost 4.6 million square feet of office space — enough to fill Atlanta’s tallest tower, Bank of America Plaza, almost four times over — is either already underway or planned along Hammond and Perimeter Center Parkway. The area is zoned for another nearly 800,000 square feet of retail and more than 1,000 hotel rooms.
The increasing density is another catalyst for the Westside Connector.
It could be the first piece of a much longer plan, probably taking shape over the next few decades, that creates a grid system connecting Perimeter Mall to the office and retail projects along Hammond and Perimeter Center Parkway. It’s yet another sign of how Dunwoody and other Perimeter cities known for single-family housing are becoming more urban.
“We are trying to hold on to the best of both worlds,” said Michael Starling, economic development director with the city of Dunwoody.
The Connector could take another five years of study before it breaks ground. For now, Dunwoody officials continue working with the federal government on planning the project.
Douglas Sams covers Commercial Real Estate
 
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/real_talk/2015/09/dunwoody-offiicals-propose-up-to-20-million.html

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