The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
2 projects planned for Atlantic Station
Hines, Invesco to build mid-rise buildings; first since Great Recession.
A pair of major real estate firms are joining forces to develop the first two new major office projects at Atlantic Station since the Great Recession.
Real estate investment and development giant Hines said Tuesday it will work with an institutional client of Invesco Real Estate to build new, ground-up buildings that have features similar to popular adaptive reuse office projects, such as those at Ponce City Market and Armour Yards.
The companies said they will team up to build T3 West Midtown, a previously announced wood-framed office building along 17th Street, as well as Atlantic Yards, a pair of mid-rise office buildings that also will rise along 17th Street.
The developments come as Midtown office space has gotten scarcer amid heavy demand from tech firms and more established corporations. Financial technology companies such as Worldpay and Equifax have taken large blocks, while NCR is building a campus on the doorstep of Technology Square.
Talent from Georgia Tech and the Midtown area’s links to MARTA rail, major interstates and trendy intown neighborhoods have been significant draws since the Great Recession.
Both T3 and Atlantic Yards will be marketed to creative firms seeking alternatives to high-rise office space. Atlanta has seen a boom in recent years of adaptive reuse projects that have turned old warehouses into office space, such as Ponce City Market and Armour Yards.
They will offer many of the perks of reuse projects — large windows and open floor plans, for instance — but with fresh construction.
Hines, based in Houston, is well-established in the Atlanta area. In 2015, the company and an investment partner acquired the retail core of Atlantic Station. It also owns the 1180 Peachtree, 999 Peachtree and Three Ravinia office towers.
Invesco Real Estate is a global real estate investment manager and unit of Atlanta-based financial conglomerate Invesco.
Hines announced plans to build the wood-framed T3 building in 2015, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in December of that year the company was considering a second office project where Atlantic Yards will rise.
At the time, Hines officials were mulling a single building there, not two as Atlantic Yards is slated to be.
Work will start in the first quarter of 2018, but no cost estimate was given in Tuesday’s announcement.
“Midtown’s progressive office customers are anxious for fresh differentiated product that provides unique architecture with a balance of amenities and services connecting them to the 24-hour attributes of Atlanta’s urban core,” Hines Senior Managing Director John Heagy said in a release.
Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture has been retained as design architect for both projects, while DLR Group will be the architect of records for T3 and Wakefield Beasley & Associates will steer Atlantic Yards.
T3 will feature about 200,000 square feet of office space, while Atlantic Yards will feature about 500,000 square feet. Atlantic Station as a whole offers a retail core anchored by Publix, Dillard’s, Target, boutiques and restaurants, and has about 1,000 condos and apartments.
“Both properties will have frontage along 17th Street, the main thoroughfare into the West Midtown submarket best known for boutique lifestyle retail and popular restaurants,” Sally Stocks, Invesco Real Estate senior director and portfolio manager, said in the release.