Northwest of Atlanta, massive village, jobs center announced

Josh Green

Tue, 01/28/2025 – 15:51

Northwest of Atlanta, the veil has lifted on an ambitious mixed-use venture with thousands of homes, an abundance of planned jobs, and a footprint about 12 times the size of Piedmont Park.

Global real estate company Hines, which owns Atlantic Station, announced a partnership with family-owned Aubrey Corporation today to create a sprawling village and jobs center called Aubrey Village across 2,390 acres off Interstate 75, marking the latest investment of significant scale in Bartow County.

The scenic site in question would cover a large portion of what’s known as the former Pine Log Wildlife Management Area, situated where I-75 meets Ga. Highway 411 (that’s exit 293), near the town of White and just north of Cartersville. It’s about 45 miles northwest of Midtown.

Rough scope of the 2,390-acre Aubrey Village site where Interstate 75 meets Ga. Highway 411, with downtown Cartersville shown at bottom. Google Maps

According to the development team, Aubrey Village is scheduled to break ground on its initial infrastructure late this year or in 2026.

Several phases are planned before the project will be considered complete in roughly a decade to 12 years, per officials.

At the core of the project would be a 600-acre, mixed-use village where roughly 2,800 families would occupy apartments, townhomes, and single-family dwellings around a new Bartow County public school. A network of trails and paths would link the residential sections—and two major “employment zones”—together, according to development officials.

The additional housing is needed in a growing area that’s rich with new major employers, according to Hines.

The Aubrey Village commercial component, meanwhile, would see a central greenspace and local cafes, restaurants, and shops peppered in amongst national retailers and a grocer.

General breakdown of uses planned at Aubrey Village over the next decade or more. Courtesy of Hines, Aubrey Corporation

One facet that could set Aubrey Village apart from other master-planned communities around the metro is more than 1,200 acres reserved for manufacturing, data center, and logistics uses, all spread across two campuses, according to today’s announcement.

Plans call for up to 10 million square feet of new development overall, including hotels.

Each component of Aubrey Village would be linked together by a new central roadway called Aubrey Parkway, which is designed to limit traffic impacts on existing roads, per developers.

The project “will provide a next-generation mixed-use village, unlike anything in Bartow County, that will be the foundation for economic growth and community engagement in the Atlanta suburbs,” said Michael Harrison, Hines senior managing director, head of U.S. Sunbelt, in a prepared statement. “[It] prioritizes the preservation and expansion of Bartow County’s greenspace and natural resources, while creating a strategic mix of uses in a live-work-play-learn environment that embraces pedestrian-oriented design.”

Planned mixed-use village and industrial layout of the ambitious Bartow County proposal. Courtesy of Hines, Aubrey Corporation