Big mixed-use project proposed on Ga. 316

Sugarloaf Crossing would have offices, retail and apartments.

A development firm wants to build an office park and residential community near Lawrenceville and the Gwinnett County Airport that would rank among the largest real estate projects underway in metro Atlanta.

Walton Development & Management plans Sugarloaf Crossing, a mix of mid-rise office buildings and apartments over shops and restaurants, at Ga. 316 and Winder Highway near the Alcovy River. A preliminary site plan shows 12 office buildings totaling more than 2 million square feet of space, parking decks, an apartment community of 375 units and about 20,000square feet of retail.

Approximately 35 acres, or about one-fifth of the currently undeveloped property, is expected to be kept as green space and walking trails, according to a site plan.

Frederic Shmurak, a senior planning and development manager for the company, said the campus will have a park-like feel. Though total office square footage is of similar scale to the Concourse office park in Sandy Springs — home of the well-known King and Queen buildings — the maximum building height is expected to be much shorter, about 12 stories.

“We don’t have tenants or perspective users, but it is targeted as a corporate campus,” he said.

The project is likely to be considered a Development of Regional Impact requiring approval of regional planners, and Walton is currently performing traffic analyses and other studies as required of such a designation. A zoning change will also be required to develop the project, and Shmurak expects to bring the proposal before Gwinnett planners in June or July.

Development is expected through 2020.

Ga. 316 is a busy artery through Gwinnett. A project to relieve congestion in the area of the Ga. 20 interchange is well underway and the county opened an extension of Sugarloaf Parkway in recent years.

Though Walton does not have tenants in hand, they do have a targeted sector: biomedicine.

“The 316 corridor is known as the Innovation Crescent; it’s mostly targeted at biomed,” Shmurak said, referring to the 15-county region between Athens and Atlanta’s airport that is working to cultivate life sciences and health technology. “That’s what the state would like to see and what we would like to see as well.”

Walton Development is a unit of Walton Group of Companies, a developer and asset management firm based in Canada.

Sugarloaf Crossing, a planned office and residential community near the Gwinnett County Airport, would rank among the largest projects underway in metro Atlanta if it receives approvals from county and regional planners.