ATLANTA | Development Thread V

[robertjhajek]

I know a lot of people here blow One Atlantic Center's dick but the building does nothing for an incredibly important intersection of midtown.

It ignores the street.

[bigstick]

Originally Posted by robertjhajek

I know a lot of people here blow One Atlantic Center's dick but the building does nothing for an incredibly important intersection of midtown.

It ignores the street.

Yes, it was a massive mistake when built...

[RocketSurgeon]

Originally Posted by robertjhajek

It ignores the street.

Umm, are you sure you have the right building? One Atlantic Center has street level entrances all around. Are you thinking of the Bank of America tower?

[1lifealex]

Originally Posted by RocketSurgeon

Umm, are you sure you have the right building? One Atlantic Center has street level entrances all around. Are you thinking of the Bank of America tower?

I think he's talking about no retail on the bottom floors in that case he is right

[Ant131531]

It's an office tower...not that big of a deal. Every city in America has office towers with no retail.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

It's an office tower...not that big of a deal. Every city in America has office towers with no retail.

yes, but when it's the only building on the block, no retail suddenly means a lot more. the infill we're seeing will solve the problem and the lack of active frontage will be a lot less noticeable.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by arctk2014

Let's see how long this "green wall" lasts considering the Atlanta Botanical Gardens couldn't even keep theirs alive/robust. I suppose the only thing that could look green like that in the summertime would be kudzu. ::shudders::

You almost have to wonder if there is a special rule that requires medical buildings to look boring. There are some good ones but in many cases it seems like they went out of their way to be bland.

[arctk2014]

Originally Posted by arjay57

You almost have to wonder if there is a special rule that requires medical buildings to look boring. There are some good ones but in many cases it seems like they went out of their way to be bland.

The cost alone to build the concrete containers for the proton therapy equipment more than likely consumed the largest percentage of that budget. Add those costs plus spending more money on higher-end HVAC equipment necessary for medical facilities leaves little in the design budget.

There are some good examples of medical buildings out there, but there's no "special rule" - it's all because of the market, economy, and "lack" of competition that has come to make them more utlitiarian-based designs than actual civic buildings everyone wants them all to be.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by arctk2014

The cost alone to build the concrete containers for the proton therapy equipment more than likely consumed the largest percentage of that budget. Add those costs plus spending more money on higher-end HVAC equipment necessary for medical facilities leaves little in the design budget.

There are some good examples of medical buildings out there, but there's no "special rule" - it's all because of the market, economy, and "lack" of competition that has come to make them more utlitiarian-based designs than actual civic buildings everyone wants them all to be.

Oh, I understand and am being slightly facetious. There are some good looking medical buildings but most of them seem exceedingly bland.

[BunkyWay]

One Atlantic actually does a pretty nice job for a building designed in the 1980s. We are lucky it wasn't built atop a parking garage.

[Verge]

Originally Posted by BunkyWay

One Atlantic actually does a pretty nice job for a building designed in the 1980s. We are lucky it wasn't built atop a parking garage.

Not every building has to have retail to respond to the street-- windows, entries other pedestrian friendly features are important-- Atlantic center actually does a good job and is really a pretty urbane building. Its more about things like scale than use-- some new buildings with storefronts are actually pretty horrible on street level, see-- the Pencil Factory (Of course there is very little right about this building).

[Ant131531]

With job growth as high as it is, I'm surprised we're not getting new apartment renderings every week. It's been at least 3-4 weeks now since our last NEW apartment rendering. I even read that permits released for multi-family were supposed to increase this year and then increase even more sharply next year. I wonder if we're just going to get another large wave of renderings? I know we generally get 2-3 big waves a year.

[joecool]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

With job growth as high as it is, I'm surprised we're not getting new apartment renderings every week. It's been at least 3-4 weeks now since our last NEW apartment rendering. I even read that permits released for multi-family were supposed to increase this year and then increase even more sharply next year. I wonder if we're just going to get another large wave of renderings? I know we generally get 2-3 big waves a year.

I am anxiously awaiting for the final approval for Amli, Eviva and the tower next to 14th st Novare. These towers look awesome!!!

[foxmccleod]

Originally Posted by joecool

I am anxiously awaiting for the final approval for Amli, Eviva and the tower next to 14th st Novare. These towers look awesome!!!

Eviva (811 Peachtree) is shooting for July for the building permit. Part of the redesign is to include some office space, though the project is still overwhelmingly residential.

[jpdivola]

Any one have an idea how many new units have either delivered or are currently U/C in the downtown/midtown area since 2010?

My (uninformed) outsider perception is that Atlanta has been in a relative pause after 30 years of robust growth. It has seen some steady core infill, but hasn't benefited as much from the post-recession back to the city movement as say Seattle or DC (which have probably have had 10-15k core units delivered or current U/C in that time)?

[RATBOYKEV]

Originally Posted by jpdivola

Any one have an idea how many new units have either delivered or are currently U/C in the downtown/midtown area since 2010?

which have probably have had 10-15k core units delivered or current U/C in that time

Intown has 6k completed/UC and 7k more proposed. This is probably missing a good number of other projects from the Westside, Buckhead, or too small to keep track of.

[Verge]

Originally Posted by jpdivola

Any one have an idea how many new units have either delivered or are currently U/C in the downtown/midtown area since 2010?

My (uninformed) outsider perception is that Atlanta has been in a relative pause after 30 years of robust growth. It has seen some steady core infill, but hasn't benefited as much from the post-recession back to the city movement as say Seattle or DC (which have probably have had 10-15k core units delivered or current U/C in that time)?

Atlanta was quite dead during the recession-- the real pause, but is booming more... well maybe more than ever before at the moment-- The development mojo appears to be back at full strength at least for residential. The central city's population has grown by 20,000-30,000 during that period and the metro by a few hundred thousand.

[shivtim]

Originally Posted by RATBOYKEV

Intown has 6k completed/UC and 7k more proposed. This is probably missing a good number of other projects from the Westside, Buckhead, or too small to keep track of.

Great job putting that list together! I know he asked about downtown/midtown, but there's obviously a ton of new and under construction stuff in Buckhead and other in-town areas. There are a few large developments that are Midtown-ish, like the Jane, Brookwood Square, and Colonial homes phase II. Also a few smaller things in Midtown like Ansley Green, fifth and piedmont, 975 Piedmont, and Ansley at Piedmont. For Atlantic Station and West Midtown there are at least a dozen large developments that are recently completed, under construction, or proposed.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by RATBOYKEV

Intown has 6k completed/UC and 7k more proposed. This is probably missing a good number of other projects from the Westside, Buckhead, or too small to keep track of.

Wow! I have read that there are around 9,000 new apartments in Buckhead as well.

As Verge notes, though, there was little or no construction during the recession so some of this is probably "catch up" from the dead years.

[shivtim]

A building permit comparison can help to shed some light on the issue:


In the past 30 or 40 years the city of Atlanta has never been near the top of this list, and now it's been #1 for the past two years. Also of note is that Atlanta is much smaller than the counties it's being compared to (Atlanta is 132 sq miles; Gwinnett is 437 sqmi, Cobb is 345 sqmi, etc), so the density of building permits in the city is pretty impressive. Finally, a building permit in Atlanta is more likely to represent a large multi-family development.