Midtown Connector Transportation Improvement Project

The team that is staffing the Midtown Connector Transportation Improvement Project – the MCP Foundation – has released its second 15 minute video providing background and an overview of the proposed project. 

This second installment focuses on elevated deck projects in other cities that have been studied, key learnings and other features that have inspired the design of this project. 

It can be viewed here: https://abetterconnector.com/community/inspiring-inspiration/

Atlanta’s housing supply shortage expected to continue for some time

The housing supply shortage is expected to get more extreme as homebuyer demand continues to outweigh inventory levels, a new study found.

As the spring home buying season begins, HouseCanary’s latest Market Pulse report compared data between March 2021 and March 2020 and found the volume of new monthly listings nationwide to be down 11.5% year over year. Last month, 284,298 new listings were placed on the market, a 0.9% decrease compared to March 2020. Additionally, 348,422 listings went under contract across the country, a 22.7% increase from March 2020.

New listing activity year-over-year decreased by 24.3% for homes in the $200,000 and under range. Homes listed between $200,000 and $400,000 had a decrease of 13.2%. New listing activity increased in houses priced above $400,000. New home listings between $400,000 and $600,000 were up 15.1%, and homes priced from $600,000 to $1 million were up 47%.

Home price appreciation continues to accelerate as the ongoing supply shortage drives prices up, the report found. That shortage is expected to continue over the coming months. The median single-family home price for the week ending April 2 was $378,408, up 16.5% year over year. The median closed price was $367,242, up 22.4%. Additionally, the month-over-month median price of single-family listings was up 2.2% and median prices of closed listings were up 5.4%.

“As we enter the spring home buying season, the market is experiencing extremely limited supply compounded by an outsized level of demand that shows no signs of easing,” HouseCanary Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Sicklick said in a press release. “Bidding wars have broken out across the country, and homes on the upper end of the price spectrum are selling at significantly higher rates compared to a year ago. The extreme supply shortage continues to put upward pressure on single-family home prices – a more favorable environment for sellers – and we expect this trend to continue over the coming months. Looking further ahead, however, rising mortgage rates could cool future price growth as potential buyers continue to get priced out of the market.

For the week ending April 2, new listings in Georgia were down 33.4% from week ending March 13, 2020, down 21.3% year over year and down 14.3% week over week.

During that same time period, homes stayed on the market for 23 days, down 47.7% from week ending March 13, 2020 and down 47.7% year over year.

The report also found the median new list price of a home in Georgia was $314,450, up 12.3% from week ending March 13, 2020 ($279,900) and up 18.7% year over year ($265,000).

Additionally, there were 2,810 listings under contract week ending April 2, a 1.9% increase from week ending March 13, 2020 (2,757) and up 26.5% year over year (2,222).

Hundreds of apartments planned to replace shuttered hotel near Beltline

Nearly 400 apartments are planned to be built on the site of the vacant InTown Suites in Piedmont Heights adjacent to the Buford Spring Connector.

Nearly 400 apartments are planned to be built on the site of the vacant InTown Suites in Piedmont Heights adjacent to the Buford Spring Connector.

A California developer plans to replace a shuttered extended-stay hotel near the Beltline with almost 400 apartments.

Fairfield Residential is proposing to demolish the InTown Suites at 1944 Piedmont Circle and build 392 apartments. A roughly 500-space parking deck is also planned.

Fairfield needs the OK from the Beltline Design Review Committee before it can start the redevelopment. The committee will be tasked with preserving a piece of Atlanta history — stone stairs on the site of the new apartments that once led to the home of Edwin Plaster.

His family was among the area’s first settlers in the early 1800s. A historical marker commemorates “Gold Tooth John,” the Plaster’s handyman who built the steps.

The steps and historical marker are located where a new sidewalk for the apartments would go.

The marker’s inscription commemorates the Plaster family for its contributions, including construction of Plasters Bridge Road, now known as Piedmont Road. The inscription, which also credits Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for being the originator of urban renewal in Atlanta, is about 90% humor and 10% history, according to an online description. As for Gold Tooth John, history says his ghost wanders the halls of the Intown Suites, a former Holiday Inn from the 1960s.

The InTown Suites has been an eyesore in Piedmont Heights, one of the neighborhoods the Beltline runs through. It stands next to the Buford Spring Connector and near Ansley Park. Midtown Bowl is also close by.

Paces Properties, behind such projects as Krog Street Market, Atlanta Dairies and Stove Works, purchased InTown Suites in 2016 for $8 million. In 2018, Paces went before the Design Review Committee with plans for an adaptive reuse of the property. The project was to include Atlanta’s first Bunkhouse hotel.

The city issued a permit in 2019 to Bunkhouse Atlanta Hotel to gut and demolish the interior and much of the exterior but to keep the main framework of the building intact. The demolition permit expired at the end of 2019. In February, the city issued a stop-work order.

The Piedmont Park Civic Association’s website includes a summary of a recent meeting with a Fairfield representative. Fairfield is under contract to buy the site from Paces Properties.

By   –  Reporter, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Atlanta Business Chronicle

New City Buys 19-Acre Site Near Future Microsoft Campus

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The developer behind 725 Ponce and the $1B Fourth Ward development has purchased a large site roughly a mile from the future Microsoft campus in Westside Atlanta.

New City Properties has acquired a 19-acre parcel at 930 Marietta Blvd. for $15.7M. The seller is listed as Metro Atlanta Land Group LLC, a company that is registered to Gwendolyn Dean Dykes of Duluth.

The property was once home to a concrete recycling plant, but today remains largely vacant, except for a single empty warehouse building, New City President Jim Irwin told Bisnow.

The site abuts Westside Reservoir Park and is roughly a mile northeast of the Microsoft campus site in the Grove Park neighborhood. The area has become a target of new development in recent years since Microsoft purchased 90 acres from former baseball star Mark Teixeira, who had planned a large mixed-use development near the park called Quarry Yards.

New City plans to break ground on a new mixed-use project at some point, Irwin said. The site falls under the Atlanta BeltLine mixed-use zoning classification.

New City built offices over retail at 725 Ponce, where it signed BlackRock to 120K SF, and included a large office component alongside a hotel and apartments at its upcoming Fourth Ward project, where MailChimp plans to move its headquarters.

But Irwin said he was unsure if New City would build any office at the new 19-acre Westside property.

“We don’t yet have a specific plan,” Irwin told Bisnow.

Instead, Irwin said he wants to take a year or more and consult with residents of nearby neighborhoods as well as members of the various Neighborhood Planning Units to hear what they would envision for the site. The final plan will be influenced by the neighborhoods’ input, Irwin said.

“I expect to spend over a year connecting with all of the neighboring property owners and neighborhoods, very intentionally, not generating specific plans until we’ve heard from everyone,” he said. “This is really an opportunity to redeem a piece of land and weave it back into the sort of the network of the neighborhood.”

While Microsoft has yet to release its development plans, the tech giant previously announced that it will not only develop space for its employees, but also a mix of other commercial developments, including affordable housing and retail.

New City previously redeveloped in three warehouses on Defoor Hills Road into loft office in Upper Westside along with Sweetwater Holdings and Wyatt Capital.

April 19, 2021

By Jarred Schenke, Bisnow Atlanta 

Link To Article

 

 

First look: 20 townhomes to complete East Lake’s new commercial village

ELL Square’s initial section goes vertical as brewery progresses across street

How all four corners of East Lake’s new mixed-use village will eventually look is coming into focus.

Atlanta homebuilder JackBilt has provided renderings to Urbanize Atlanta that illustrate townhome plans for the last empty corner at Hosea + 2nd, a project that’s replaced derelict buildings and vacant lots with restaurants, offices, and a salon the past five years.

Designed by TSW Architects, the four-story townhomes are called ELL Square for “East Lake Line,” a nod to the neighborhood’s nearby borders with Oakhurst and Kirkwood. Renderings suggest an amalgamation of traditional and more contemporary styles that echo recent Hosea + 2nd additions.

Positioned on the southwest corner, the 20 townhomes will each span between 2,000 and 2,200 square feet with garages and rooftop outdoor patios with fireplaces. Prices start in the mid-$500,000s, according to JackBilt founder Jack Zampell. A dozen will have the option for elevators.

“We’re not officially on the market yet, but the word is already on the street, and as a result, we have a sizeable list of interested buyers,” Allen Snow, an Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty associate broker, wrote via email. “We already have our first home under contract for $659,900.”

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The first phase of 10 homes is under construction now, expected to finish later this year. All ELL Square townhomes will have three bedrooms and three and ½ bathrooms, with an optional half-bathroom on the roof, plus heated indoor lounges with wet bars that can function as flex spaces.

Planned communal amenities include a dog park and a central courtyard “square” with a lawn, firepit, and seating.

JackBilt purchased the last undeveloped Hosea + 2nd quadrant from the owners of Fellini’s Pizza and La Fonda restaurants, Clay Harper and Mike Nelson. Those business partners had bought the four East Lake corners in 2015 from the Cousins Family Foundation, an organization that’s garnered national attention for its work to revitalize East Lake since 1993.

JackBilt’s single-family and townhome ventures are found in neighborhoods from Morningside and Virginia-Highland to Old Fourth Ward and Kirkwood.

In 2017, Hosea + 2nd won the Atlanta Urban Design Commission’s Award of Excellence for contributions to the city’s urban fabric.

So far, tenants include restaurants Poor Hendrix, Mix’D Up Burgers, Perc Coffee Roasters, Japanese-Korean restaurant Salaryman, and Lake & Oak BBQ. Hair salon Cameo and the offices of Purpose Built Communities, a national nonprofit founded by developer Tom Cousins and chaired by former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, round out the roster.

The last available retail space—2,300 square feet with an 800-square-foot wraparound patio—has been claimed by Hippin’ Hops Brewery and Oyster Bar. The business will be one of Georgia’s first Black-owned breweries, with another location under construction in East Atlanta Village.

Co-owner Clarence Boston tells Urbanize Atlanta he’s “shooting for June” to open the brewery’s doors in East Lake.

Have a closer look at ELL Square plans in the gallery above, and here’s a before/after of the corner where Hippin’ Hops is being built out now:

April 16, 2021, 12:11PM
Article by Josh Green

Real Estate Notebook: Toll Brothers increases height of Midtown development

An illustration of the lower level of the new Toll Bros. dual=tower project in Midtown.

An illustration of the lower level of the new Toll Bros. dual tower project in Midtown.

Toll Brothers is increasing the height of its latest development in Midtown to include a 37-story and 35-story tower.

Toll Brothers, one of the country’s largest residential developers, wants to fill the project with student housing and apartments. Its plans have changed from two years ago when the Pennsylvania-based company proposed a 22-story student housing tower and 27-story apartment tower.

Toll Bros. did not explain the reasons for its change and could not immediately be reached for comment. It wants to develop 264 student housing units and 376 apartments.The project would be built in two phases, with the apartment tower going up first at 1018 West Peachtree Street. The student-housing tower would rise on Spring Street.

A 9-story parking deck between the towers would include more than 600 spaces. About 5,000 square feet of commercial space is planned for the ground floor of the apartment tower. A patio for outdoor dining could be placed on West Peachtree.

WDG Architecture out of Washington, D.C., is designing the project. Toll Bros. originally used Brock Hudgins Architects.

Toll Brothers paid just over $21 million for the 1.5-acre site a few blocks north of Technology Square, one of the country’s top innovation districts and home to a growing number of corporate headquarters.

Student housing development is growing in Midtown with numerous projects planned or underway by Emory University, Georgia Tech and Savannah College of Art and Design. Downtown, a 25-story student housing tower is planned near Georgia State University’s campus. The $87 million project at John Wesley Dobbs Avenue and Courtland Street would feature 247 units and 742 beds, with up to 15% of the units set aside for working class households at 80% of Area Median Income and renting from about $1,100 to $1,900.

Perspective: Focus on workforce housing

A developer wants to build a 31-story tower with apartments for teachers and other school employees in downtown’s Fairlie Poplar district, one of the largest commitments so far to workforce housing.

New Jersey-based RBH Group proposes the $45 million project at the corner of Ted Turner Drive and Walton Street. The 400,000-square-foot tower will include 455 units, classroom space and a public community room. On the top 13 floors, 229 units will form what the developer calls a Teachers Village. About 140 units will be for households making 60% or 80% of the Area Median Income.

For example, a one-bedroom unit at 60% AMI rents for $864. Market rate is $1,560.RBH Group will work with Atlanta Public Schools to market the units to teachers. The developer wants at least 70% of the tower’s residents to be teachers and school employees. The remaining 216 units will be rented to seniors who are at least 55. A portion of the tower’s 26,000-square-feet of retail will be reserved for small and minority-owned business.

By  –  Senior Editor/News, Atlanta Business Chronicle

April 16th, 2021.

Link to Article