Momentum Builds at Atlantic Station

Contractors are busy readying the next component of $2 billion development in Atlanta

By Debra Wood

Seven years after conception, more than 1,500 people are busy building the latest piece of the $2 billion Atlantic Station brownfield redevelopment project in midtown Atlanta. Developers expect to open the entertainment and retail area, called The District, this fall.

People began moving into the 635 multifamily residential units developed by Lane Co. of Atlanta and Beazer Homes of Atlanta in May 2004. More than 1,300 additional units are under construction at the site of a former steel plant.

The District

General contractor VCC of Atlanta is building The District, a four-block by five-block downtown-style area, with 10 post-tensioned concrete buildings, ranging from one-story to four-stories. It is also building a separate store for retailer IKEA in another part of Atlantic Station, which is scheduled for completion this summer.

Kevin Burchfield, senior project manager and vice president of VCC, said his firm has nearly 700 workers onsite. Carter of Atlanta manages marketing of office space and retail construction.

"This is a one-of-a-kind job," Burchfield said.

The District sits atop an 8,000-car, four-level, 38-acre parking garage, constructed by VCC. Designers replicated the surface street grid in the parking area below.

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"We're building a city on top of a parking garage," Burchfield said. "You've got your hardscapes, landscaping, everything at street level."

The company used five different types of foundation at the site, including regular mat foundations, continuous flight auger piles, H piles and 1,500 drilled shafts.

"It was straightforward construction once we got the ground covered from the brownfield and started going vertical," Burchfield said. The stucco exterior will give the appearance of brick.

About 300 residential units, called ATL Lofts, will top ground-floor retail on several of The District buildings. VCC is building the exterior, and developer Lane Co. of Atlanta will assume air rights as soon as the buildings are substantially complete. Lane Realty Construction of Atlanta, a division of Lane Co., will finish the $200,000 to $600,000 units. The $71 million project began in March and is expected to wrap up in summer 2006.

Also in The District, R.J. Griffin & Co. of Atlanta broke ground last summer on Twelve Hotel & Residences, a 26-story hotel and condominium development for Novare Group and Wood Partners, both of Atlanta. The 404 one- and two-bedroom residences, with prices ranging from $180,000 to $300,000, will start at the seventh floor. The 101 suite-style hotel rooms will occupy the lower floors.

R.J. Griffin used a combination of spread footing, caisson and pile foundations. Like the rest of Atlantic Station, it sits atop a former steel mill. Slag, a byproduct of steel production, creates challenges with foundations, because it has the capacity to swell and expand. Therefore, Griffin used different foundations to manage the unusual belowground environment.

Crews had poured the first 16 floors of the post-tensioned concrete structure in late March. Other trades were framing, plumbing and glazing the lower floors. A phased completion will begin this fall, with final turnover in the first quarter of 2006.

"It's on a very tight schedule," said Judd Bobilin, senior vice president of development at Novare Group. "We have 300 to 400 people working onsite."

More Residential

Beazer Homes built 56 town homes, now sold out and occupied, and 34 single-family attached homes. The duplexes are selling for from $385,000 to $500,000.

Lane has completed two apartment and condominium complexes at Atlantic Station, near Commons Park.

"The two biggest challenges are dealing with the soil and the density of the development, our parcels in particular," said Kelly Carter, senior project manager for Lane's wood-frame projects: element, Icon and The Flats. "It's uncommon in wood-frame apartment construction to fill the site from sidewalk to sidewalk."

Lane Realty Construction is using commercial construction techniques, including tower cranes, on the projects. At each complex, residential units wrap around a parking garage.

Lane broke ground on the five-story, $55 million element condominiums late in 2004. The element housing units sit on a 10- to 12-ft., heavily steel-reinforced, slab-on-grade foundation, in case the slag swells. The parking garage sits on a pile foundation. The 322 luxury element condos have sold out, at prices from the high $100,000s to the high $300,000s. Thirty percent of the units were set aside as affordable housing and reserved for low-income families. This element complex should be complete in July 2006.

In a joint venture with Flagstone Holdings of Miami, Lane began construction in December on The Flats, a $17 million student-housing community.

Lane brought in 10 to 20 ft. of fill dirt to level the concave parcel and is using a standard 4-in. slab-on-grade foundation. The 86 two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments are scheduled for a late summer 2006 completion and will house 281 students. It is open to any college student. Atlantic Station is about one mile from Georgia Tech and three miles from Georgia State University.

Lane also is building the 242-unit, four-story Icon Apartments, which have a 20 percent affordable living component. This $31 million project broke ground in December and is scheduled for completion in July 2006.

Jacoby Development acquired the former steel mill property in 1998. It formed the joint venture, Atlantic Station LLC, with AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. of New York. Development Design Group of Baltimore designed Atlantic Station and Wakefield Beasley & Associates of Atlanta produced the working drawings.

The project sits at the nexus of interstates 75 and 85. When fully built out, in about 10 years, it will include 12 million sq. ft. of retail, office, residential and hotel space.

Useful sources:

Atlantic Station
http://www.atlanticstation.com/