Dunwoody’s High Street gains new
development partner, says construction to begin next year, by Dyana Bagby, 11/30/18.
The long dormant High Street mixed-use
development including 3,000 residential units planned for Perimeter Center in
Dunwoody has a new real estate partner with plans to break ground next year.
But how a moratorium on apartment construction in place until April may affect
those plans is not clear.
An illustration of High
Street’s planned center area including a public park. (Special)
North American Properties announced in a
Nov. 29 press release it was teaming up with High Street property owner GID to
develop “High Street Atlanta” on nearly 40 acres at Perimeter
Center Park and Hammond Drive near the Dunwoody MARTA station. As part of the
announcement, NAP said a groundbreaking is expected in late 2019. The press
release states the project is a transit-oriented development and would include
10 city blocks designed around a pedestrian-friendly grid spanning 8 million
square feet.
The joint venture comes days after the
City Council implemented a six-month moratorium on multi-unit construction
including application submissions. A March 8 application for a land disturbance
permit for the first phase of High Street was also rejected by the city,
according to documents obtained via an open records request. A new application
has not yet been filed, according to city officials.
Boston-based GID continues as the
primary “master” developer for the project while North American Partners will
head up retail leasing, marketing and community engagement, according to the
press release. NAP will also be in charge of activating the development’s
public spaces.
NAP was behind Avalon in Alpharetta, a
1.1 million square-foot mixed-use development. Other NAP projects in metro
Atlanta include Atlantic Station and Colony Square in Midtown. NAP is
headquartered in Cincinnati and has offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Fort Myers,
Fla.
The Dunwoody City Council voted Nov. 19 to immediately stop for six-months
any consideration of the construction of multi-unit buildings. City officials
said they needed the time to review fire safety standards. GID officials and
their attorneys were at the council meeting when the moratorium was approved,
but declined comment.
The city did not respond to a request
for comment about the NAP announcement. City staff also rejected a March 8
application for a land disturbance permit for the first phase of the
development and requested more information and details before considering a new
application.
Site plans submitted to the city by
Kimley-Horn as part of the LDP application for the first phase show four blocks
of mixed-use development, private internal streets and parking decks. A small,
central park area is also included.
The first phase encompasses nearly 22
acres and includes demolition of existing surface parking lots adjacent to the
11-story office building at 211 Perimeter Center Parkway. No major
construction is reflected around the 219 and 223 Perimeter Center Parkway
office buildings. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution is based at 223 Perimeter
Center Parkway.
Site plans submitted as
part of March 8 land disturbance permit application filed with the city of
Dunwoody for the massive High Street mixed use development. The application
were for the first phase of the project. The city rejected the application and
requested more detailed information in several areas. (City of Dunwoody)
The site plans submitted as part of the
LDP application for the first phase have evolved since it was last publicly
discussed in 2016 at a Dunwoody Homeowners Association meeting. Construction of a 30-story condominium tower
in the first phase is
not included in the March 8 LDP application site plans filed with the city.
Four 8-story apartment buildings and
their parking decks, a row of townhomes and a 16-story apartment building are
included in the first phase surrounding 211 Perimeter Center, according to the
LDP application.
A 12-story office tower and a 7-story
parking deck are also included in the first phase. Retail on the ground floors
of the apartment and office buildings have been part of ongoing discussions
surrounding the project.
The actual number of apartments in each
building is not identified on the site plans, but full build-out of the project
includes 1,500 apartments and 1,500 condominiums.
Earlier plans for the first phase of High
Street included the
30-story condo tower as well as a 12-story office building, two 7-story
apartment buildings, two 8-story apartment buildings, a 12-story apartment
building and several 3-story townhouses.
Full build out of High Street remains at
400,000 square feet of new office, 400,000 square feet of retail and 400 hotel
rooms.
As part of rejection of the High Street
LDP application, city staff requested more information and details in several
areas before considering a new application. The city requested a current tree
survey, saying a 2015 tree survey was unacceptable. Several questions about
storm water detention were also raised.
Requests also include that High Street’s
“Center Street” that comes off Perimeter Center Parkway into the center of the
mixed-use development be extended to the Sandy Springs border for future
connection.
Bike and pedestrian connectivity must
also be included along Center Street as part as part of the Perimeter Community
Improvement Districts Commuter Trail Master Plan, according to the city’s
comments. The bike lane must be separate from the road, according to city
instructions.
The city also requested a westbound
right turn lane on Hammond Drive.
GID had also submitted the High Street site to
the state to be considered as part of Atlanta’s Amazon second headquarters bid, but Amazon announced Nov. 13 it
was splitting its new headquarters between New York and northern Virginia.
DeKalb County approved the High Street
project in 2007, a year before Dunwoody became a city.
Comments
The approval of the
High Street project in 2007 was one of the reasons given to vote for cityhood.
Dunwoody was already built out with single family home subdivisions and more
apartments were viewed as detrimental to traffic and school stability.
Transit-oriented
development was being pushed by UN Agenda 21 and it required the development of
“mega-cities” and transit villages. All
high-density projects in Atlanta Metro since 2007 have been based on this model
despite our return to fossil fuels and continuing subdivision expansion into
the exurbs. Like all bad “Progressive” laws and policies, UN Agenda 21 is alive
and in hiding for now, but none of the enabling legislation has been repealed.
Now in 2018, we don’t
hear as much about high density development, but it continues to be
implemented. Atlanta Metro has developed
“world class gridlock” over the past decades since the 1980s and the population
has doubled from 3 million to 6 million without expanding our road and highway
systems to accommodate the growth. We are finally beginning to address our road
and highway problems, but it is too little and too late.
The Hightower development
is located on Hammond Drove near the Ashford Dunwoody exit on I-285. There are
plans to add elevated lanes to the top of I-285
It sits next to the MARTA Station and is across the street from the
State Farm office building.
The impact of adding
3000 apartment and condo dwellers to the Perimeter Mall area is unknown. Traffic concerns depend on where these
renters work and whether they need to use their cars to commute. School
concerns depend on how many school-age children will live in these apartments.
These new apartments
will be expensive and it is not clear that renters of apartments and buyers of
condos will allow the property company to find enough customers for this
particular property. The other new apartments in the area seem to be occupied
by immigrant professionals, but software developer jobs are not concentrated at
Perimeter and immigration limits could tighten in the US.
The occupants living
at Perimeter could develop their own neighborhood with millennials and bars
like the development in Brookhaven. They will certainly need a grocery store on
site and it isn’t clear that that will be available.
The worst-case
scenario is that Hightower will result in exacerbating the traffic gridlock
paralysis that already exists at Perimeter Mall.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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