In Brookhaven, mixed-use district enters pipeline at 32-acre site

Josh Green

Thu, 10/31/2024 – 13:58

Plans are starting to materialize for a site the City of Brookhaven has pinpointed as primo real estate for mixed-use housing and more density.

Atlanta-based developer Third & Urban wants to redevelop a 32-acre office park wedged between Buford Highway and Interstate 85 into a walkable district that blends retail, housing, and greenspace while catering to the area’s quickly growing employers, especially in the healthcare sector.

The multi-phase proposal could breathe new life into the long-underperforming Corporate Square office park—and its vast seas of asphalt parking.

The Corporate Square Boulevard site is situated across the interstate from the recently opened Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital and Emory University’s planned Executive Park Healthcare Innovation District, a billion-dollar, long-term project.

Third & Urban on Friday submitted a Development of Regional Impact filing with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, a state-level requirement for projects large enough to potentially impact local municipalities.

Part of the lonely Corporate Square site in question in July this year. Google Maps

Looking north across the Brookhaven site, with I-85 shown at right. Third & Urban

According to Third & Urban’s vision, the office-park remake would take place across several phases. Once fully built, per developers, the site could see up to 2,000 new residences (a mix of apartments, townhomes, corporate housing, and senior living residences) and an active public plaza. Other facets would include 30,000 square feet of retail, a 350-key hotel, and some 100,000 square feet of medical office space.

Beyond Children’s hospital and Emory Healthcare, the site is relatively close to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention global headquarter and Emory University, which collectively employ more than 40,000 people, as project officials note. The acreage is zoned M-Industrial, but Third & Urban is seeking to have it rezoned to Master Planned Development, or MPD, to support mixed uses.

Another selling point is the site’s direct connectivity to the 1.3-mile Peachtree Creek Greenway that extends north from Druid Hills Road. Future phases call for linking the multi-use trail south to the Atlanta Beltline and PATH400 through Buckhead, and north to other cities such as Doraville and Chamblee.

The Corporate Square Boulevard site in relation to Buford Highway, I-85, and the expanded hospital complex. Google Maps

Third & Urban is the same firm behind adaptive-reuse projects Westside Paper and Common Ground along the Beltline, and is also a partner in the proposed mixed-use overhaul of Bankhead MARTA station. The developer was behind 2022 plans to remake a full block of Little Five Points where dive-bar landmark Star Bar stands, but that proposal was later withdrawn in the face of public opposition.

Should the Brookhaven project move forward as planned, it would continue Third & Urban’s new strategy of targeting office parks that have seen better days “in high-growth, first-ring suburban markets and repositioning them into their highest and best use,” per project announcement today.

On that note, Third & Urban also acquired the six-building Dunwoody Park offices earlier this year at the Perimeter, which are currently being leased while developers weigh long-term redevelopment possibilities.

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